eye

Meaning

Noun

1. An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).
2. The visual sense.
3. The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.
4. Attention, notice.
5. The ability to notice what others might miss.
6. A meaningful look or stare.
7. Short for private eye.
8. A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
9. The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
10. A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.
11. A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a hook, pin, rope, shaft, etc.; for example, at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss, through a crank, at the end of a rope, or through a millstone.
12. A burner on a kitchen stove.
13. The relatively calm and clear centre of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
14. A mark on an animal, such as a butterfly or peacock, resembling a human eye.
15. The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
16. A reproductive bud in a potato.
17. (informal) The dark brown centre of a black-eyed Susan flower.
18. That which resembles the eye in relative beauty or importance.
19. A shade of colour; a tinge.
20. One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
21. The circle in the centre of a volute.
22. The foremost part of a ship's bows; the hawseholes.
23. The enclosed counter (“negative space”) of the lower-case letter e.
24. An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
25. Opinion, view.

Verb

1. To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).
2. (obsolete) To appear; to look.
3. To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).
4. To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/aɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English eye, eie, yë, eighe, eyghe, yȝe, eyȝe, from Old English ēage (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”) (compare Scots ee, West Frisian each, Dutch oog, German Auge, Danish øje, Norwegian Bokmål øye, Norwegian Nynorsk auga, Swedish öga), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”).
Other Indo-European cognates include Latin oculus (whence English oculus), Lithuanian akìs, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “(poetic) eye; face”) and ὄσσε (ósse, “eyes”), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan 𐬀𐬱𐬌 (aši, “eyes”), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi). Related to ogle.
The uncommon plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ēaġan, nominative and accusative plural of ēaġe (“eye”).

Sentences

But the boy never took his eye off his new friend .

But that was simply because my eye was tired .

Try to make eye contact with a stranger on the bus , and hold it for five seconds , without speaking .

There are white stains above and behind each eye and behind each ear .

You're losing your eye .