eyelid

American  

[ahy-lid] / ˈaɪˌlɪd /

noun

eyelids plural

1. the movable lid of skin that serves to cover and uncover the eyeball.

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eyelid British  

/ ˈaɪˌlɪd /

noun

1. either of the two muscular folds of skin that can be moved to cover the exposed portion of the eyeball

2. 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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• eyelids
  plural

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

See Examples For:

eyelid eyelids

Adam Hamawy’s campaign headquarters is in a suburban New Jersey office center, down the hall from Princeton Plastic Surgeons, his practice that offers everything from eyelid surgery to Brazilian butt lifts.

From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026

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

Stay up really late so you wake up with the kind of high upper eyelid exposure that gives you Prey Eyes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 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

Kote lifted one eyelid, then the other and grunted at what he saw, not seeming particularly surprised.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

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

"In your cheeks or just underneath your eyelids, we'll be looking for changes in blood flow when a person is talking or presenting."

From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026

Patients who went under the knife late last year are now debuting tighter skin, flatter stomachs and lifted eyelids to their social networks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026

My eyelids felt scratchy but my brain was still going about a thousand miles an hour, and I knew that sleeping wasn’t in the cards for the night.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin