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oeil-de-boeuf

[French œ-yuh-duh-bœf]
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noun, plural oeils-de-boeuf [French œ-yuh-duh-bœf] /French ˌœ yə dəˈbœf/.
  1. a comparatively small round or oval window, as in a frieze.
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Origin of oeil-de-boeuf

< French: literally, bull's eye
Also called oxeye.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for oeil-de-boeuf

Historical Examples

  • The Oeil-de-Boeuf has its irrational hopes, if also its fears.

    The French Revolution

    Thomas Carlyle

  • Meanwhile, the poor Bodyguards have got hunted mostly into the Oeil-de-Boeuf.

    The French Revolution

    Thomas Carlyle

  • The truth is, the Oeil-de-Boeuf has rallied; to a certain unknown extent.

    The French Revolution

    Thomas Carlyle

  • What means this reticence of the Oeil-de-Boeuf, broken only by nods and shrugs?

    The French Revolution

    Thomas Carlyle

  • Circumstances made the life of courts the best obtainable; but there is no trace of French 'oeil-de-boeuf' servility.

British Dictionary definitions for oeil-de-boeuf

oeil-de-boeuf

noun plural oeils-de-boeuf (œjdəbœf)
  1. a circular window, esp in 17th- and 18th-century French architecture
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Word Origin

literally: bull's eye
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012