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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

See Examples For:

cat's eye cat's-eye cat's-eyes

That's called the reverse cat’s eye . . . which may be coincidental, who can say?

From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2024

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

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

I looked at the lavender, cat’s eye glasses.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

Like the fox in the logo, Ms. Lahat has coppery hair and wears cat’s-eye glasses.

From New York Times ● Aug. 20, 2019

“We always say there’s a lot of movies in this movie,” offers Gordon, who has blunt Betty Page bangs and eyeliner that flicks up at the corners in a delicate cat’s-eye.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2017

Hyman, who was on leave to finish writing her book on Renaissance erotic poetry, wore bright-red cat’s-eye glasses and matching lipstick.

From The New Yorker ● May 23, 2016

“CatCam” is no more a cat’s-eye view of life than “Tokyo Waka” is a rendering of the world from a bird’s eye, but, together, they remind us that the human-animal relationship is a two-way street.

From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2013

‘I’d go for contacts - glowing orange ones with cat’s-eye pupils. Those would be cool.’

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

Never before has there been such a phantasmagoria of shapes, sizes, colors and prices: python, polka-dotted and zebra frames, champagne, vermilion and espresso-colored lenses, asymmetric cat's-eyes and jewelry-bedizened sun helmets that cost thousands of dollars.

From Time Magazine Archive

We had them all: cat’s-eyes, aggies, dearies, milkies, steelies, glassies, onionskins.

From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm

And she refastened a bracelet with great care—which contained two cat's-eyes of no value—as she went on her way.

From The Damsel and the Sage A Woman's Whimsies by Elinor Glyn

There was a gnawing just under my new gold belt-buckle with the cat's-eyes on it, as if the cats had claws as well as eyes, and I remembered that it was ages since lunch.

From My Friend the Chauffeur by Frederic Lowenheim

Last summer, on the Northern Pacific, the man offered your cat's-eyes to me as native gems found exclusively in Dakota.

From The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories by Owen Wister