eye shadow

American

Or eyeshadow

noun

a cosmetic coloring material applied to the eyelids.

eye shadow British

noun

a coloured cosmetic put around the eyes so as to enhance their colour or shape

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

eye shadows

plural

Etymology

Origin of eye shadow

First recorded in 1925–30

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:

eye shadow

“We started to see a lot more intensive makeup looks, with contouring and heavy eye shadow application.”

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 7, 2026

Sephora gave shoppers free rein to schmear on lipstick and play with eye shadow.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025

She said L'Oréal objected on the basis it owned the Urban Decay make-up brand, which has a range of eye shadow palettes called Naked.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2025

To put a cherry on top, bandmates Volkan Caner and İdris Akbulut adorned their classic black eye shadow and lipstick combo.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2025

I dab on her lip gloss and silver eye shadow and a touch of blush.

From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023