eyelid
Americannoun
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.
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
Increasingly, new cars are built to detect deviations from the lane or physiological markers of drowsiness—such as eyelid drooping—then alert drivers that it’s time for them to get off the road.
From Slate • Nov. 26, 2025
My eyelid starts twitching, which it does sometimes when I get nervous.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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.
