eye sb. (archaic pl. “eyne” 11 times for rhyme, but not rhyming in Per. III. Gower 5, Lucr. 1229)
1.
the organ of sight; phr. “put
the finger in the eye” (like a child
weeping) Err. II. ii. 208; phr.
referring to drunkenness
Tp. III. ii. 10
“thy eyes are almost set
in thy head”
; fig.
MND. III. ii. 435
“sorrow's eye,”
Tim. V. i. 26
“opens the eyes of
expectation,”
Lr. IV. iv. 15
“close the eye of
anguish.”
2.
attributed to the
heavenly bodies, esp. the sun
MND. III. ii. 188
“eyes of light”
(=stars),
John III. i. 79
“the glorious sun . . .
with splendour of his precious
eye,”
Rom. III. v. 19
“yon grey is not the
morning's eye,”
Ham. II. ii. 548
“the burning eyes of
heaven,”
Sonn. xviii. 5
“the eye of
heaven”
(=the sun),
xxv. 6
“the sun's eye.”
3.
sight, view
Tp. II. i. 133
“banish'd from your
eye,”
H8 I. i. 30
“him in eye,”
Mac. III. i. 125
“Masking the business
from the common eye,”
Ham. IV. iv. 6
“in his eye;—In
my mind's eye”
(not pre-S.) Ham. I. ii.
185;—Mer.V. I. i.
138*
“if it stand. . . Within the
eye of honour,” (a) within the scope of
honour's vision, (b) within the limits of the
honourable;—Ant. II. ii.
215*
“tended her i' the
eyes”=waited in her sight (cf. MND. III. i. 172, Ham. IV. iv. 6).
4.
look, glance 1H4 I. iii. 143*
“eye of death,”
Ham. II. ii. 308
“have an eye of”
(=watch),
Oth. II. i. 38
“to throw out our eyes
for”
(=to look out for); of the exchange of
amorous glances
Tp. I. ii. 438
“At the first sight They
have changed eyes,”
Ant. III. xi. [xiii.] 156 “mingle eyes With one that ties his
points.”
5.
slight shade, tinge
Tp. II. i. 58
“tawny.—With an
eye of green in't,”
Ham. I. iii. 128
“Not of that eye which
their investments show”
(so Ff; Qq “that
die” or “dye”).
