| 释义 |
▪ I. eye-ball, n.|ˈaɪbɔːl|
Also eyeball.
[f. eye n.1 + -ball.]
1. = ball of the eye.
a. The apple or pupil.
b. The eye itself within the lids and socket.
a.1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 119 Hold up thy head: Look in mine eye balls. 1607Heywood Wom. Kilde Wks. 1874 II. 101 Your companie is as my eie-ball deere. 1614Beaum. & Fl. Wit at Sev. Weapons i. i, The brow of a Military face may not be offensive to your generous eyeballs. a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 397 A fitful light in his eyeball glistened. 1871R. Ellis Catullus lxiv. 219 Ere..these dimly lit eye-balls Feed to the full on thee.
b.1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 369 Crush this hearbe into Lysanders eie, Whose liquor hath this vertuous propertie, To..make his eie-bals role with wonted sight. 1668Dryden Ind. Emp. ii. i, I feel..my eyeballs rowl. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. vi. xx, Their stony eye-balls glitter'd on In the red and smoky light. 1802Home in Phil. Trans. XCII. 354 The eye-lid is very loose upon the eye-ball. 1866Kingsley Herew. xv. 214 An arrow was in his eyeball. 1876Foster Phys. iii. ii. 503 The eyeball is moved by six muscles.
2. Advb. and attrib. phr. eye-ball to eye-ball, confronting closely; with neither party yielding. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1962D. Rusk in Sat. Even. Post 8 Dec. 16/1 We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked. 1965H. Kahn On Escalation ii. 43 If there is a direct (‘eyeball to eyeball’) confrontation.., all participants and observers will take an intense interest in the proceedings. 1966Guardian 16 June 1/3 Mr Wilson said we ought not to ‘contract out and leave it to the Americans and Chinese eyeball to eyeball’. 1969‘E. Lathen’ When in Greece vii. 68 Ken had not bargained for an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. 1970M. Kelly Spinifex iii. 65 Two extremely ambitious dogs are eyeball to eyeball over the same bone.
▸ colloq.up to the (also one's) eyeballs and variants. a. adv. Deeply, totally, to an extreme degree.
1912G. Ade Knocking Neighbors 138 They had covertly planned to get him Saturated to the Eye-Balls. 1933M. Lowry Ultramarine i. 51 That boy got all poxed up to the eyeballs, voyage before last... Yes, he was poxed all away to hell. 1986Sunday Times 6 Apr. 68/5 Any borrowers who are wary of gearing themselves up to the eyeballs run the risk of being labelled wimps. 1990New Yorker 29 Oct. 114/1 Under the obtrusive direction of Michael Greif, the production is expressionist to its eyeballs. 2000New Republic 8 May 38/1 The attempt to sell stock in the road was a failure. The associates borrowed up to their eyeballs, but they needed more.
b. adj. With in. Implicated, immersed, or involved in something to an extreme degree.
1982World Affairs 14688 From what I know..the Soviets have been up to their eyeballs in training terrorist organizations and providing the logistics in the past. 1992News Jrnl. (Wilmington, Delaware) 18 Aug. a2/2 [He] was ‘up to his eyeballs’ in knowledge about the Iran-contra affair. 2000M. Gayle Turning Thirty lxvii. 248 ‘She's up to her eyeballs in work at the moment.’.. ‘Just get her to give Ian a call when she's come through the other side.’
▸ In pl. colloq. (esp. in Marketing). The audience of a visual medium, as a television programme or a web site; viewers, esp. regarded as a source of potential revenue. Also: the readership of a printed medium.
1995Wired Mar. 56/1 Eyeballs, euphemism for a viewing audience. ‘There are plenty of new eyeballs available in this time slot.’ 1996Playback 22 Apr. 5/1 While the quest for eyeballs is a given, the method by which WIC is pursuing more Ontario subscribers..is stoking a myriad of issues. 1999N.Y. Times 24 Oct. iv. 3/4 On the Internet..their success will very much depend on whether they can attract eyeballs to the site. 2001Sci. Fiction Chron. June 50/1 (advt.) Reach 24,000 Eyeballs (Average 2 per reader) when you advertise here.
▪ II. eye-ball, eyeball, v. U.S. slang.|ˈaɪbɔːl|
[f. the n.]
trans. and intr. To look or stare (at).
1901Harper's Monthly Feb. 443/1 ‘God!’ burst from the lips of the man as he eyeballed his attendant. 1942Amer. Mercury July 85 He would eye-ball the idol-breaker. 1968Listener 22 Aug. 229/2 This movie is so richly risible that I advise all, in John Wayne's phrase, to go down to the Warner and eyeball it. 1970A. Cameron et al. Computers & O.E. Concordances 60 Errors..will be exposed very quickly because you simply ‘eyeball’ down the centre of the page. |