Dictionary

dewy-eyed en · ADJ

Etymology

From dewy + eyed.

Meanings

1. Having eyes with a moist, glistening appearance, especially as indicating that one is on the verge of crying or that one is experiencing strong emotions.
   • Bill Clinton has never shied away from displays of dewy-eyed, lip-biting sentimentality. 2000 June 12, Romesh Ratnesar, “The Victory Lap?”, in Time Europe:
   • What does his wife, music teacher Caroline, think about his retiring to a quiet life in Wantage? "I think she's a bit dewy-eyed. She thinks it's going to be nice to spend more time with me. I have to take time to decompress from a job like this for so long, but coming from that to doing nothing would be very unhealthy." 2025 September 17, Paul Clifton, “"You don't get the luxury of self-pity in this job, because the machine is continuing to churn problems at me" says Sir Andrew Haines”, in RAIL, number 1044, page 28:
   • One she saw clearly—a dewy-eyed, lovely woman who murmured loving, broken words. c. 1910, Stewart Edward White, chapter 1, in The Call of the North:
2. (figuratively) Naive or innocent in the manner of a child.
   • Dowie could scarcely have told what phrase or word at last suddenly brought up before her a picture of the nursery in the house in Mayfair—the feeling of a warm soft childish body pressed close to her knee, the look of a tender, dewy-eyed small face and the sound of a small yearning voice saying: "I want to kiss you, Dowie." 1922, Frances Hodgson Burnett, chapter 21, in Robin:
   • At one moment he gave himself up completely to his pride at having captured this pretty, trustful, dewy-eyed thing! 1918, John Galsworthy, “The Apple Tree”, in Five Tales:
3. (figuratively) Excessively nostalgic.

Forms

Synonyms

misty-eyed · wet behind the ears · teary-eyed · green · callow