eyedropper

American  

[ahy-drop-er] / ˈaɪˌdrɒp ər /

noun

1. a dropper, often one used to dispense medicine such as eye drops or ear drops.

   Hold the eyedropper over the eye and carefully dispense the prescribed number of drops into the eye.

   Use an eye dropper to put some of the cleaning solution directly into the top of the printhead.

2. Digital Technology.

   1. Usually eyedropper tool a menu option or function that allows the user of a graphics application to sample and analyze a color occurring in a digital image, and then adjust or replicate that color for use elsewhere.

      You can set the skin tone for your image more precisely using the eyedropper tool.

   2. a menu icon representing this function, resembling a dropper, used for taking up and dispensing small amounts of liquid, as paint on a color palette.

      Click on the eyedropper and then click on the color you want to select.

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Etymology

Origin of eyedropper

First recorded in 1935–40; eye + dropper

Example Sentences

“To continue product-by-product is like using an eyedropper to empty the ocean — ineffective, inefficient, and frustratingly insufficient to protect consumers.”

From Washington Post • Jul. 14, 2021

“That’s showing up to a four-alarm fire with an eyedropper full of water,” one expert noted to the New York Times.

From Slate • Apr. 28, 2021

She withdrew 10 microliters — about one-fifth of an eyedropper — from the vial containing the Trojan horse and put them into a culture flask along with a special preparation of the monkey cells.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2020

All of the water that we see around us in lakes and streams and up in the sky can be represented by adding three more drops from an eyedropper.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

More plausibly, he told of feeding his initial sample by eyedropper to a mouse, which showed no ill effects after ingesting what was then “the world supply” of heavy water.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik