Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity: The term describes someone who is innocently trusting, naive, or idealistic, often in a way that overlooks reality or complexity. It suggests a pure, uncritical, and often sentimental outlook.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • She was still dewy-eyed about love, believing every story had a happy ending.
  • The politician's dewy-eyed promises failed to convince the experienced voters.
  • He listened to the old sailor's tales with dewy-eyed wonder.

Advanced Usage

• "dewy-eyed optimism": An outlook characterized by an innocent and often unrealistic hopefulness.

  • His dewy-eyed optimism about the project's ease was quickly dispelled.

• "dewy-eyed nostalgia": A sentimental longing for the past viewed through a lens of innocent, uncritical affection.

  • The memoir was written not with bitterness, but with a kind of dewy-eyed nostalgia.

Variants and Related Words

• Star-eyed (adj): Having a dreamy, idealistic, or romantically hopeful expression or attitude.
• Wide-eyed (adj): Marked by uncritical acceptance, amazement, or innocence. (Note: Often used similarly but can imply surprise more than sentimentality).

Synonyms

• Naive: Showing a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment.
• Credulous: Having too great a readiness to believe things.
• Idealistic: Characterized by idealism; unrealistically aiming for perfection.
• Innocent: Lacking guile or worldly experience; pure.

Antonyms

• Cynical: Believing that people are motivated purely by self-interest; distrustful.
• Skeptical: Not easily convinced; having doubts.
• Worldly-wise: Experienced and knowledgeable about the practical aspects of life.
• Jaded: Bored or lacking enthusiasm after having had too much of something.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• "Look at the world through rose-colored glasses": To see things in an overly optimistic, idealistic, or uncritical way. This is a close conceptual synonym for having a dewy-eyed perspective.
  • You can't run a business if you look at the world through rose-colored glasses.

Adjective

1. exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity
   • childlike trust
   • dewy-eyed innocence
   • listened in round-eyed wonder