Dictionary

cockeye en · NOUN

Etymology

From cock + eye. See cock (“to turn up”).

Meanings

1. An eye affected by strabismus.
   • How dared that miserable wretch cast his eye—his cock[-]eye, as Vroom had truly said—on Etta. It gave him a kind of grim pleasure to dwell on Looten's physical defect. 1894, Louis Zangwill, A Drama in Dutch, page 168:
   • As flies swarmed around a nearby outhouse, Molly B eyed him for a moment, looking him up and down with a cockeye that seemed to have a life of its own. 2019, Bill Bishop, Two Hearts, page 9:
   • “Fine day, gents,” said he, focusing his cockeye. 1920, William Patterson White, Lynch Lawyers, page 257:
   • His cockeye ogled the pile of food sitting on the table. “Delicious!” he said with glee. The cockeyed cricket licked his lips […] 2011, Bea L. Brown, Wally the Cockeyed Cricket:
   • The next time I saw Dave, he'd joined Deep Purple and had just got back from Sweden, where the band had sent their new lead singer to have his cock-eye straightened. 2006, Roy 'Chubby' Brown, Common As Muck!: The Autobiography of Roy 'Chubby' Brown:
2. The socket in the ball of a millstone, which sits on the cockhead.

Forms

Relateds

cockeyed