deadeye
Americannoun
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Nautical. either of a pair of disks of hardwood having holes through which a lanyard is rove: used to tighten shrouds and stays.
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an expert marksman.
noun
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nautical either of a pair of disclike wooden blocks, supported by straps in grooves around them, between which a line is rove so as to draw them together to tighten a shroud Compare bull's-eye
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informal an expert marksman
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of deadeye
1740–50; dead + eye; as nautical term, probably ellipsis from deadman's eye, Middle English dedmaneseye deadeye
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“He’s just broken every milestone by a long shot. He is a deadeye shooter, but I work with him on his middle game: floaters, runners, shots he can be creative with in college and beyond.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2018
Even deadeye sharpshooter Reggie Miller clapped his wrists when releasing the ball.
From Forbes ● Aug. 26, 2014
Kentucky was a deadeye 35-of-37 at the line, compared to 13-of-17 for the Hoosiers.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 24, 2012
Johnson was a passing maestro; Bird was a deadeye shooter.
From Washington Post
But she couldn’t understand why God would hold that against her or against Monica Mathers, who’d never started a war or killed anybody, and whose deadeye three-pointers were straight-up amazing.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
Coach Ranko Zeravica threw down the gauntlet after his Yugoslav deadeyes trounced Italy, 86-77, for the gold medal.
From Time Magazine Archive
Make fast your painter round one of her deadeyes, and then follow me aboard.”
From Overdue The Story of a Missing Ship by Holloway, W. Herbert
Below, Lee Goom and Toyama were lowering skylight covers and screwing up deadeyes.
From The Night-Born by London, Jack
Instead they seized the rusty deadeyes that held the shrouds, found toeholds in the closed gunports, and pulled themselves up within reach of the gunwales.
From Caribbee by Hoover, Thomas
He reached up and seized a notch beneath a gunport, pulling the longboat under the deadeyes that supported the mainmast shrouds.
From Caribbee by Hoover, Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
