any of certain gems having a chatoyant luster, especially chrysoberyl.
a playing marble marked with eyelike concentric circles.
any of a group of gemstones, esp a greenish-yellow variety of chrysoberyl, that reflect a streak of light when cut in a rounded unfaceted shape
Also called: ataata. a grazing marine gastropod, Turbo smaragdus , of New Zealand waters
First recorded in 1545–55
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Light enters the eye through the cornea, the round, transparent surface of the cat’s eye.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 2, 2024
The bright, sweetish, clear liqueur is the color of a cat’s eye, and it hits the tongue like a fairy spell, otherworldly and arcane, floral, grassy and herbaceously vibrant.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2022
As a strange sound comes in over the telephone line and radio, Faye expresses her concern with a furrowed brow and quizzical looks behind her cat's eye glasses.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2020
In Baldwin’s book, the story is positioned at cat’s eye level, a little like the perspective in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 25, 2019
I keep my cat’s eye in my pocket, where I can hold on to it.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
“We always say there’s a lot of movies in this movie,” offers Gordon, who has blunt Betty Page bangs and eyeliner that flicks up at the corners in a delicate cat’s-eye.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2017
A woman in cat’s-eye glasses and straight dark hair sat on another woman’s lap; the woman with glasses turned out to be one-half of a married heterosexual couple from Westchester.
From New York Times ● May 11, 2017
Hyman, who was on leave to finish writing her book on Renaissance erotic poetry, wore bright-red cat’s-eye glasses and matching lipstick.
From The New Yorker ● May 23, 2016
“CatCam” is no more a cat’s-eye view of life than “Tokyo Waka” is a rendering of the world from a bird’s eye, but, together, they remind us that the human-animal relationship is a two-way street.
From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2013
Carolyn hugged Stella and tossed a cat’s-eye marble at Jojo, who caught it happily.
From "Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper
Never before has there been such a phantasmagoria of shapes, sizes, colors and prices: python, polka-dotted and zebra frames, champagne, vermilion and espresso-colored lenses, asymmetric cat's-eyes and jewelry-bedizened sun helmets that cost thousands of dollars.
From Time Magazine Archive
We had them all: cat’s-eyes, aggies, dearies, milkies, steelies, glassies, onionskins.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
The jewelers are testing the lapis lazuli, the pearls, the corals, the topazes, the sapphires, the cat's-eyes, the rubies, the emeralds, and all the other kinds of gems.
From The Little Clay Cart Mrcchakatika by Ryder, Arthur William
The groom at a recent wedding gave cat's-eyes set round with diamonds to his ushers for scarf pins, the cat's-eye being considered a very lucky stone.
From Manners and Social Usages by Sherwood, Mrs. John M. E. W.
Friday forenoon, May 5.—I don't have to gaze at my cat's-eyes to kill time any more.
From The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories by Wister, Owen
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.
