lay eyes on

Idioms

Also,. Look at, see, as in As soon as I laid eyes on him I knew he would be perfect for the lead in our play, or I'd never set eyes on such a beautiful gown. The first term dates from the early 1200s and the third from the late 1300s; the second, using clap in the sense of “a sudden movement,” dates from the first half of the 1800s.

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.

Given the headlines covering this study, you might think it wise to quickly cross the street if you so much as lay eyes on a piece of bacon.

From Slate • Aug. 2, 2025

They know they’re both spies when they lay eyes on each other for the first time at the New York apartment doubling as their HQ.

From Salon • Feb. 2, 2024

He and his crew were the first Europeans to lay eyes on California, and what they saw on Oct.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2023

Of the hundreds of souls that gathered here in Lower Manhattan, only a few dozen journalists, police officers and lawyers would even lay eyes on the man they had come to see.

From Washington Post • Apr. 4, 2023

“He probably needs to lay eyes on someone.”

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023