eyed
- 1Having eyes of a specified kind, color, or number.
Two brown-eyed parents can still have a blue-eyed child.
A one-eyed tabby sleeps on the counter of the corner hardware store.
Note
It lives as the second half of a compound, and the first half says what the eyes are like. That can be a color (gray-eyed), a number (one-eyed), or a comparison: Dickens's lynx-eyed Fagin misses nothing, and Shakespeare's onion-eyed means streaming with tears. Blake still writes it open, as fair eyed dew. When two compounds share the ending, the first keeps a dangling hyphen, as in the Davenports' gray- and blue-eyed children of 1901.
- 2Simple past and past participle of eye.
The guard eyed each visitor carefully before opening the gate.
By noon she had eyed every dress in the little shop.
Note
One regular form does both jobs: she eyed the stranger, and she had eyed him all evening. The verb has more than the watching sense, and two of its trades pull in opposite directions. Potatoes that have been eyed have lost their buds. Fish eggs that have been eyed have been left to develop until the black eye spots show, which is the use that shades into the plain "having eyes" adjective.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Eyed is both the simple past and past participle of eye. en.wiktionary.org
- Eyeing potatoes can mean removing their buds. en.wiktionary.org
- Eyeing fish eggs can mean allowing them to develop until black eye spots become visible. en.wiktionary.org
- Eyed also describes fish eggs that have developed eyes. en.wiktionary.org
- 3Having one or more eyes.
Most eyed animals rely on sight to find food and avoid danger.
The ancient carving showed an eyed figure staring straight ahead.
Oppositeeyeless
Note
Formed the plain way, from eye plus the -ed ending that turns a noun into "having" it, and already in Middle English as eyed or iȝed. Fish hatcheries give it a working use. Eggs are eyed once the black eye spots show, the stage at which Earl Leitritz and Robert C. Lewis's Trout and Salmon Culture (1980) describes shocking them. Like most adjectives of this kind, it is not compared.
- 4Having spots or markings that resemble eyes.
The butterfly's eyed forewings startled the lizard into backing away.
Collectors prize the boldly eyed pattern on this rare beetle.
Note
A naturalist's sense, used for markings that mimic eyes, often as a defense. A beetle whose back is eyed may look like a snake to a predator. It sits comfortably after a verb (the wings were eyed) as well as before a noun, and it describes the pattern rather than any real sight. An eyed wing sees nothing.
Showing meanings only.
eyed is a form of eye
eye, verb: To observe someone or something carefully, often in order to judge or assess. Full entry
- Spelling
- eye → eyed: add -d
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /d/.
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
From Middle English eyed (also spelled eied, iȝed, y-yȝed), equivalent to eye combined with the suffix -ed.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Eyed derives from Middle English eyed. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English alternative spellings include eied, iȝed and y-yȝed. en.wiktionary.org
- The formation is equivalent to eye combined with the suffix -ed. en.wiktionary.org