"lay eyes on" meaning in English

See lay eyes on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-lay eyes on.ogg [Australia] Forms: lays eyes on [present, singular, third-person], laying eyes on [participle, present], laid eyes on [participle, past], laid eyes on [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|lay<,,laid> eyes on}} lay eyes on (third-person singular simple present lays eyes on, present participle laying eyes on, simple past and past participle laid eyes on)
  1. (idiomatic) To see; look at; glimpse. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: lay one's eyes on
    Sense id: en-lay_eyes_on-en-verb-dr7GdNHA Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for lay eyes on meaning in English (2.2kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay<,,laid> eyes on"
      },
      "expansion": "lay eyes on (third-person singular simple present lays eyes on, present participle laying eyes on, simple past and past participle laid eyes on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1980, Teena Marie (lyrics and music), “Young Love”, in Irons in the Fire",
          "text": "I remember back in school / When I first laid my eyes on you / I saw your smile and knew right then and there",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 16, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, page 144",
          "text": "Does she regard him simply as a workman come to do a job for her, someone whom she need never lay eyes on again; or is she gabbling to hide discomfiture?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 February 5, Samantha Masters, quoting Edie Brickell, “Paul Simon tour 2018: Who is the Simon & Garfunkel star’s wife?”, in Express.co.uk",
          "text": "We can show the kids the tape and say, ‘Look, that's when we first laid eyes on each other.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To see; look at; glimpse."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_eyes_on-en-verb-dr7GdNHA",
      "links": [
        [
          "see",
          "see"
        ],
        [
          "look at",
          "look at"
        ],
        [
          "glimpse",
          "glimpse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To see; look at; glimpse."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "lay one's eyes on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-lay eyes on.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/03/En-au-lay_eyes_on.ogg/En-au-lay_eyes_on.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/En-au-lay_eyes_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay eyes on"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid eyes on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay<,,laid> eyes on"
      },
      "expansion": "lay eyes on (third-person singular simple present lays eyes on, present participle laying eyes on, simple past and past participle laid eyes on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1980, Teena Marie (lyrics and music), “Young Love”, in Irons in the Fire",
          "text": "I remember back in school / When I first laid my eyes on you / I saw your smile and knew right then and there",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 16, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, page 144",
          "text": "Does she regard him simply as a workman come to do a job for her, someone whom she need never lay eyes on again; or is she gabbling to hide discomfiture?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 February 5, Samantha Masters, quoting Edie Brickell, “Paul Simon tour 2018: Who is the Simon & Garfunkel star’s wife?”, in Express.co.uk",
          "text": "We can show the kids the tape and say, ‘Look, that's when we first laid eyes on each other.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To see; look at; glimpse."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "see",
          "see"
        ],
        [
          "look at",
          "look at"
        ],
        [
          "glimpse",
          "glimpse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To see; look at; glimpse."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-lay eyes on.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/03/En-au-lay_eyes_on.ogg/En-au-lay_eyes_on.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/En-au-lay_eyes_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "lay one's eyes on"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay eyes on"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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