gimlet eye

noun

1. a sharp or piercing glance.

2. an eye that appears to give a sharp or piercing look.

Other Word Forms

• gimlet-eyed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of gimlet eye¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

His Joel had a gimlet eye and wore his heart on his sleeve; he was sometimes goofy but always in on the joke.

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No detail is too small for Caro’s gimlet eye, which is currently trained on finishing Volume 5.

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With a gimlet eye and a surprisingly girlish laugh, Vera is cantankerous, impatient, intensely private, unapologetically disheveled and utterly glorious.

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Watching it all with a gimlet eye, Mary — his old friend who’s still helplessly in love with him — takes Frank to task for sacrificing his theatrical partnership with Charley for hollow Hollywood success.

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Like Eve Babitz and Joan Didion, she positioned herself as a young female writer who was both immersed in the moment and able to stand outside it, casting a gimlet eye on the ironies and excesses of America’s “left coast.”

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