eyesore
Americannoun
-
eyesores
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of eyesore
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at eye, sore
Explanation
Something that's really unpleasant to look at is an eyesore. You could call your apartment building an eyesore if it's a huge, ugly concrete structure that looms over your street. Most eyesores are structures or buildings — an old, decrepit house that's sagging on one side and has a yard full of weeds is probably thought of as an eyesore by most of its neighbors. You might also describe a new hotel as an eyesore if it's painted a strange shade of pink that clashes with the buildings nearby. The word eyesore has been around since the 1500's, from the idea of "something so offensive to the eye that it hurts."
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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:
They hoped it would rid them of what they consider both an eyesore and an environmental hazard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
Once a neighbourhood eyesore, Heuermann's childhood home now draws the media and true crime obsessives.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2026
Another eyesore home defeat, this time to Gloucester, cut them adrift of the top eight and a European spot for next season.
From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2026
Over half of it will be elevated -- a major concern for Alexandrians who fear the tree-lined track will be replaced by eyesore concrete stilts.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
Tía Mimi's hedge of bright red ginger shielded us somewhat from the sight of the eyesore palace and of the dictator strolling of a Sunday afternoon with his three-year-old grandson in a minuscule general's uniform.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
But festering eyesores are everywhere, as Bass herself indicated when she called in to KTLA-TV.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
Tearing down the eyesores “sparked a new energy and sense of pride,” said Wiseman, who lives in nearby Portage, Ind. ‘It was like a chain reaction.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
If fashion is a storyteller, what are these eyesores trying to tell us?
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2025
He spoke glowingly about his father’s early years as a Manhattan developer, his work turning eyesores into thriving skyscrapers, and the “vision he had to do things differently.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
The pulpit and high altar are admirable as the choir; the only eyesores are the diminutive organ and the eleven side-chapels with their caricatures of high art.
From To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Volume I by Sir Richard Francis Burton
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
