black eye
9
4.7
- noun
- /blæk aɪ/
- Informal
:
mala imagen
- The recent scandal has given the company a serious black eye that may take years to recover from.
The, the FBI has got a lot of black eyes, you know, recently.
- The, the FBI has got a lot of black eyes, you know, recently.
- There were a lot of things that that were gave them us a black eye.
Examples
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Even if half of what is being reported is true, the USG is in for another seriously black eye.
Blog text (5) -
The big story is not that this is a black eye for any party or person.
Blog text (28) -
So higher Ed has got a real black eye right now.
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"It's going to be a black eye in this community for a long time."
Blog text (12) -
And every time his picture's on the front page... it's a black eye for the image of Los Angeles.
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Another black eye for the GOP.
Blog text (32) -
The police should be sharing a bit of the PR black eye here.
Blog text (7) -
The homicide rate's already given Richmond a black eye.
Fiction book (1990) -
This is a black eye for the department, Lowry.
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Even worse, the department is getting a black eye in the press for not informing those affected.
Blog text (15)
Synonyms
34
6.8
A mark on someone's reputation that makes others respect them less
7
5.8
A thing that makes people think less of someone
3
6.3
A mark that damages a person's reputation or record
1
9.9
A mark that harms a person's reputation
An action that makes someone look bad
A single event that harms a person or group's good reputation
A rude word for a mark or event that badly damages someone's reputation
Antonyms
How Damaging
- Literature
564
2.8
157
3.7
- Informal
9
4.7
219
3.1
15
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
black + eye
The literal combination of 'black' + 'eye' evokes a visible bruise, and the figurative sense (damage to reputation) arises by metaphorical extension from a physical mark to a reputational one. This mapping is partly predictable from the constituents—learners can guess a negative or harmful sense—but the specific nuance of reputational harm rather than a physical injury is idiomatic enough to be only semi-transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The idiom black eye uses the picture of a dark bruise on the face as a memory hook: when something gives a person or group a black eye, it causes a visible 'embarrassment' or harms their 'reputation'.