evil eye
9
7.2
- noun
- Literature
:
mal de ojo
- A lot of jealous guys giving me the evil eye.
- evil eye complex
Can we keep her in the evil eye of society just because of a few bad things she did?
- Can we keep her in the evil eye of society just because of a few bad things she did?
- And also, I don't know if you've heard in in Iranian culture, it's something called Chesh evil eye.
- There are so many rules, but all these things kind of combat this evil eye and in different cultures and to to this guy's point with the Greeks.
- And then you had the evil eye, which actually was, you know, envious friends who would actually cast on my child and my baby would get sick.
- Here I'd like to focus on three examples, the evil eye, funerals and weddings.
- Like, but fucking evil eye is a big is a real thing, bro.
- And it's a big part of it is evil eye as well.
Examples
-
I bought a necklace with an evil eye bead that's supposed to protect me from bad spirits.
Fiction book (2002) -
Adler and Suttle jump forward to help, but she gives them the evil eye.
Fiction book (1993) -
But now she gave me a look that almost made me believe in the evil eye.
Fiction book (1997) -
An old woman gives them the evil eye and crosses herself as they pass.
Fiction book (1997) -
Harper hated to give the driver a reason to cast her evil eye his way.
Fiction book (1990) -
I'd watch my tongue if I were you, or she'll give you the evil eye.
Fiction book (1993) -
Wow, that's some evil eye she's got there.
-
Leanna stepped a few paces back from the hunters, giving them the evil eye.
Fiction book (1998) -
Sikes gave me the evil eye—like what did I think I was doing here?
Fiction book (1995) -
Mary shot him an evil eye from the other side of the room, filled with jealousy.
Antonyms
How Harmful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'evil' (harmful/malicious) + 'eye' (a look), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a harmful or malevolent look that can cause misfortune. This concept is widely attested cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'mal de ojo', Turkish 'nazar', Arabic 'al-ayn'), so the composition and cultural schema make it readily comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Evil eye comes from an old belief that a strong, jealous look could bring bad luck to a person or their things. People wore small blue or glass charms to block that look, so today evil eye means a look thought 'to cause harm' or bring 'bad luck'.