blear-eyed
/'bliəraid/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Having eyes that are tired, watery, or dimmed, often from exhaustion, sleepiness, or crying: Describes the physical appearance of eyes that are not clear or sharp, typically due to fatigue.
- Dull or dim in perception; mentally foggy: Can describe a state of mental weariness or lack of sharpness.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- After studying all night, she was blear-eyed and could barely focus.
- The blear-eyed child rubbed his eyes, struggling to stay awake.
- He gave a blear-eyed look at the alarm clock, wishing for more sleep.
Advanced Usage
- "blear-eyed with fatigue": extremely tired to the point where the eyes are affected.
- The nurses, blear-eyed with fatigue after their double shift, continued their rounds.
- Used to describe a vague, unfocused, or dim outlook, not just a physical state.
- He viewed the future with a blear-eyed pessimism.
Variants and Related Words
- Blear (verb): To make (the eyes or vision) dim or unclear.
- Tears bleared her vision.
- Bleary (adjective): (Of the eyes) unfocused or filmy from sleep or tiredness. Often used interchangeably with "blear-eyed," though "bleary" is more common.
- He had bleary eyes in the morning.
- Blearily (adverb): In a bleary-eyed manner.
- He looked blearily around the room.
Synonyms
- Weary-eyed: Having tired eyes.
- Sleepy-eyed: Having eyes heavy with sleep.
- Heavy-lidded: Having eyelids that seem weighted down, often from tiredness.
Related Phrases
- To have bleary eyes: A common phrase describing the condition.
- She woke up with bleary eyes.
- Bleary vision: Blurred or dimmed eyesight.
- The medicine caused temporary bleary vision.
Notes on Meaning
- The primary meaning relates directly to the physical condition of the eyes () being blear (dim, watery). The sense of being "tired to the point of exhaustion" is a consequence or cause of this physical state.
- It is a descriptive, often literary word. In everyday modern English, "bleary-eyed" is the more frequently used form.
Adjective
- tired to the point of exhaustion