Eye v.

[f. EYE sb.¹]

  I.  † 1. trans. To perceive with the eyes; to see. lit. and fig. Obs.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 102. Eyest thou this filthood?

1632.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 77. Never in her life-time ever eyed the Princesse a more pleasing spectacle.

1655.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., I. (1661), 64. They … who in the performing of divine duties, eye not God through them.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., X. 690. The paths of gods what mortal can survey? Who eyes their motion?

1779.  J. Newton, in Olney Hymns, III. No. 58. His heart revives, if cross the plains He eyes his home.

  2.  To direct the eyes to, fix the eyes upon, look at or upon, behold, observe. Often with a word or phrase indicative of some feeling (e.g., anger, suspicion, wonder, etc.). To eye askance, askant: see ASKANCE, ASKANT.

1566.  T. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewel, iv. 148. Gentle Reader! Eye M. Jewel wel.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., III. i. 40. Full many a Lady I haue ey’d with best regard.

1682.  Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor. (1716), 12. Eye well those Heroes who have held their Heads above Water.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XVII. 443. They … eye the man, majestic in distress.

1797.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, II. vi. 190. They eyed the prisoners with curiosity, but without pity.

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., ii. The public … were eyeing … the empty platform.

1848.  M. Arnold, Tristram & Iseult, Poems (1877), 215. The knights eyed her in surprise.

1883.  W. Clark Russell, Sea Queen, III. xii. 271. My father eyed her askant.

  fig.  1689.  Hickeringill, The Ceremony-Monger, Wks. (1716), II. 437. Eying nothing of … the Beauties of the Mind.

  † b.  To look upon, regard as (so and so). Obs.

1659.  W. Brough, Sacr. Princ., 240. Eying men as Mortal and Mutable.

1673.  Janeway, Heaven upon Earth, 44. We do not sufficiently eye God as the Fountain … of all our Excellency.

  3.  To keep an eye on; to observe narrowly.

1586.  A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 101. At one time or other I haue … eyed the demeanours, issues, and dispositions of sundry humors.

1611.  Bible, 1 Sam. xviii. 9. And Saul eyed Dauid from that day, and forward.

1639.  Fuller, Holy War, IV. xxvi. (1647), 215. It being good to eye a suspicious person.

1667.  Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 385. I observed my wife to eye my eyes whether I did ever look upon Deb.

1672.  Sir T. Browne, Lett. to Friend (1690), 5. In consumptive Diseases some eye the Complexion of Moals.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XIII. 36. He sat, and ey’d the sun, and wished the night; Slow seemed the sun to move.

1797–1804.  Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 139. He … succeeded in eyeing the bird to the distant passage … by which it entered and left its nest.

1812.  H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., xiii. (1873), 120. I’ve stood and eyed the builders.

1877.  ‘H. A. Page,’ De Quincey, I. iv. 81. Had eyed the lad hovering about the house.

  † 4.  To have or keep in view; to aim at (a mark). Of an expression, text, etc.: To refer to. Obs.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. iv. 7. The aymed marke, which he had eide.

1594.  West, 2nd Pt. Symbol., § 219. In which are chiefly to be eyed the matter and forme.

1621–31.  Laud, Sev. Serm. (1847), 34. The letter of the psalm reads David … the spirit of the psalm eyes Christ.

1625–8.  trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., III. (1675), 367. God, whom alone I eyed and respected.

1659.  Fuller, App. Inj. Innoc. (1840), 563. This my expression did eye another person.

1669.  Penn, No Cross, xxii. § 3. Let the Glories of another World be ey’d.

1771.  Wesley, Wks. (1872), V. 201. Therefore, eye him in all.

  † 5.  intr. a. To look or appear to the eye. b. To have an eye to, look to. Obs.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., I. iii. 97. My becommings kill me, when they do not Eye well to you.

1627–77.  Feltham, Resolves, I. xiv. 22. As if one were, for the contentment of this life; and the other, eying to that of the life to come.

  II.  6. trans. To furnish with eyes, in senses 20 and 21 of the sb.

1854.  T. Morrall, Needle-making, 30. In that [stage] of eying … 4,000 [needles] per hour are … easily produced.

1867.  F. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 48. On the tails eye hang a triangle also eyed.

1883.  W. C. Conant, in Harper’s Mag., 933/1. The ends of the strands are thus ‘eyed.’

  Hence Eyeing vbl. sb., the action of the vb. EYE.

a. 1732.  T. Boston, Crook in Lot (1805), 3. A wise eying of the hand of God in all we find to bear hard upon us.

  Eye, obs. form of AWE, EGG.