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• cat's eye
  cat's eye

  noun

  any of certain gems having a chatoyant luster, especially chrysoberyl.
• cat's-eye
  cat's-eye

  noun

  any of a group of gemstones, esp a greenish-yellow variety of chrysoberyl, that reflect a streak of light when cut in a rounded unfaceted shape

cat's eye

American  

[kats-ahy] / ˈkætsˌaɪ /

Or cat's-eye

noun

cat's eyes, plural cat's-eyes plural

1. any of certain gems having a chatoyant luster, especially chrysoberyl.

2. a playing marble marked with eyelike concentric circles.

3. cat eye.

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cat's-eye British  

noun

1. any of a group of gemstones, esp a greenish-yellow variety of chrysoberyl, that reflect a streak of light when cut in a rounded unfaceted shape

2. Also called: ataata.  a grazing marine gastropod, Turbo smaragdus , of New Zealand waters

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cat's eyes
  plural
• cat's-eyes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cat's eye

First recorded in 1545–55

Example Sentences

Light enters the eye through the cornea, the round, transparent surface of the cat’s eye.

From National Geographic • Jan. 2, 2024

The bright, sweetish, clear liqueur is the color of a cat’s eye, and it hits the tongue like a fairy spell, otherworldly and arcane, floral, grassy and herbaceously vibrant.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 6, 2022

As a strange sound comes in over the telephone line and radio, Faye expresses her concern with a furrowed brow and quizzical looks behind her cat's eye glasses.

From Salon • Dec. 16, 2020

In Baldwin’s book, the story is positioned at cat’s eye level, a little like the perspective in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

From The Guardian • Jun. 25, 2019

From around the maid’s aproned skirts there appeared a single cat’s eye, a sickening yellow.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck