eye dropper
1
3.5
- noun
- /ˈaɪ ˌdrɒpər/
:
cuentagotas
- He filled the eye dropper with dye and carefully dripped it onto the paper for his art project.
Examples
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After four times, I had to give her an eye dropper.
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He positioned the eye-dropper.
Fiction book (2002) -
"More vodka, Alyoshka?" asked Tolya, rolling his finger over the rubber bulb of the eye-dropper on the table.
Fiction book (2002) -
He poured himself a glass and dipped the eye-dropper into it, sucking up just enough liquid to fill the tube's tapered snout.
Fiction book (2002) -
He dipped the eye-dropper into his glass, suctioned up a drop of clear liquid, and squeezed it out onto the middle of the windowsill by Alyoshka.
Fiction book (2002) -
To help the baby bird drink, she used an eye dropper to gently dispense milk.
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The scientist needed an eye dropper to transfer precise amounts of liquid into the test tubes.
Synonyms
5
2.7
A small tube with a rubber bulb used to put medicine or liquid in small drops
2
3.5
A small tool that draws up and releases tiny drops of liquid, often for medicine
How Precise
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a metaphorical extension of a physical 'eye' + 'dropper' (a small pipette for the eye) to a tool that 'samples' a tiny element; knowing the constituents suggests a small instrument but does not directly indicate 'color picking' in software. In a software context the sampling sense can be inferred (it 'picks' a tiny sample), so the relation is partial and context-dependent rather than fully compositional.
Etymology
Eye dropper is a small tube with a soft bulb you squeeze to pull up and drop tiny medicine into the eye. The word dropper shows it gives out single 'drops', so the name reminds you it is for measuring and putting small amounts of liquid.