black eye

See also: blackeye

English

A black eye.

Noun

black eye (plural black eyes)

1. A periorbital hematoma; a visible bruise surrounding a person's eye; an assault causing such a bruise; the eye involved.

   Synonyms: (slang) blinker, (colloquial) shiner

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "You got a black eye out of him, and that's for publication. We can't have this reign of terror, Mr. Malone."

2. (figurative) A defeat.
3. (figurative) Damage to a reputation.
   • 1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, Simon & Schuster (2003), p. 205:

     "He looked downward in mournful gloom at the skeet-shooting range he had ordered built for the officers on his headquarters staff, and he recalled the mortifying afternoon General Dreedle had tongue-lashed him ruthlessly in front of Colonel Korn and Major Danby and ordered him to throw open the range to all the enlisted men and officers on combat duty. The skeet-shooting range had been a real black eye for him, Colonel Cathcart was forced to conclude."

4. (dated) An eye having a dark iris, regarded as a point of beauty.
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see black,‎ eye.

Translations

bruised eye

• Afrikaans: blou oog
• Arabic: عَيْن سَوْدَاء f (ʕayn sawdāʔ)
• Armenian: կապտած աչք (kaptac ačʻkʻ)
• Catalan: ull morat m, ull de vellut (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 黑眼圈 (zh) (hēiyǎnquān), 熊猫眼 (zh) (xióngmāoyǎn)

• Czech: monokl (cs) m
• Danish: blåt øje, sæbeøje n
• Dutch: blauw oog n
• Esperanto: subokula bluaĵo
• Faroese: blátt eyga n
• Finnish: musta silmä (fi)
• French: cocard (fr) m, mélanobutyrophtalmie f, œil au beurre noir (fr) m (literally “black butter eye”), œil poché (fr) m
• German: blaues Auge (de) n (literally “blue eye”), Veilchen (de) n (literally “violet”) (colloquial)
• Greek: μαύρο μάτι n (mávro máti)

  Ancient Greek: ὑπώπιον n (hupṓpion)

• Hebrew: פנס (he) m (panás)
• Hungarian: monokli (hu)
• Icelandic: glóðarauga (is) n (literally “embers eye”)
• Irish: súil dhubh f
• Japanese: パンダ目 (パンダめ, pandame)
• Latvian: zila acs f
• Macedonian: модро око n (modro oko)
• Norman: yi pochi m
• Norwegian: blått øye n, blåveis (no) m
• Polish: podbite oko, limo (pl), podkowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: olho roxo m (literally “purple eye”)
• Romanian: ochi vânăt m
• Russian: синя́к под гла́зом m (sinják pod glázom), подби́тый глаз m (podbítyj glaz), (colloquial) финга́л (ru) m (fingál), (colloquial) фона́рь (ru) m (fonárʹ), (colloquial) бланш (ru) m (blanš)
• Spanish: ojo morado m (literally “purple eye”), ojo a la funerala m (literally “funeral eye”) (colloquial), moratón (es) m
• Swedish: blått öga (literally “blue eye”), blåtira (sv) c
• Tagalog: pasa sa mata
• Turkish: morarmış göz
• Ukrainian: сине́ць під о́ком m (synécʹ pid ókom), підби́те о́ко n (pidbýte óko), фінга́л m (finhál)
• Welsh: llygad du m

defeat

damage to a reputation

See also

• black-eyed pea

Anagrams

• eye black, eyeblack