eyelid
Americannoun
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eyelids
plural
noun
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either of the two muscular folds of skin that can be moved to cover the exposed portion of the eyeball
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Also called: clamshell. aeronautics a set of movable parts at the rear of a jet engine that redirect the exhaust flow to assist braking during landing
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of eyelid
Middle English word dating back to 1200–50; see origin at eye, lid
Explanation
Your eyelid is the piece of skin that closes over your eyeball when you blink. The purpose of your eyelids is to protect your eye (and, of course, to be decorated with eye shadow). When you close your eyes to go to sleep, you're actually closing your eyelids — and they are making it easier for you to sleep by blocking any light from your eyes. Humans actually have upper and lower eyelids that keep dust, sweat, and other substances out of their eyes, and also spread moisture across the entire eye with each blink.
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:
The shot of the battered Big Baby, one eyelid drooping, sitting on a swing gazing at the full moon, is far more chilling than anything in the “M3GAN” movies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
A few years ago, he could walk this same Luton street without anyone batting an eyelid, but a Brit Award and a handful of top‑ten singles have changed things.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026
Towns, meanwhile, suffered a nasty cut on his right eyelid when a drive to the rim ended in a clash of heads with Denver's Spencer Jones in the final minute of the first quarter.
From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026
“Constant self-viewing makes eyelid heaviness and a chronically tired appearance far more noticeable,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 1, 2026
I can see Peeta’s face beginning to return to normal, his eyelid opening, the grimace leaving his mouth.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Jasmine Karipayeva, 27 from Kazakhstan, decided to have blepharoplasty -- surgery to remove skin from the eyelids -- after "coming across a video on TikTok", lured by low prices and pictures of professional-looking surgery.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Their long, heavy eyelids give them a look of drowsy calm; the adjective most often associated with them is “chill.”
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
One literally eye-opening scene features a corpse’s eyelids being sewn to stay up so that she can be made up, propped up, and seated in a family photograph with her siblings and parents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
"My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn't remember me," she wrote.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2025
When Emma had been holding her breath for so long that she swayed with dizziness and her eyelids sagged down over her eyes, she finally thought, We just need to buy more time.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
