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Glite Dictionary
to poke someone's eye out

to poke someone's eye out

1 7.9
Hurt someone's eye by hitting it with a sharp object
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : sacar un ojo
  • Why do adults always say you'll poke your eye out?

Examples

  • Be careful with that stick or you might poke someone's eye out.

  • Stop looking at me or I'll poke your eye out. - Poke out my eye? - Mm-hmm.

    The Crow (2024)

  • - You go out there, you will poke your eye out.

    Fat Albert (2004)

  • Actually, I just, you know, poked his eye out.

    Johnny Suede (1991)

  • You poke your eye out, your father's gonna kill me.

    Death at a Funeral (2010)

  • Listen, Harvey, you punctilious prick, you touch my column, and I'm coming down there and poking your eye out with that little red pencil you like so much!

    The Ring (2002)

  • He warned his child to put down the toy before it could poke someone's eye out.

  • If you swing that umbrella around, you could easily poke someone's eye out.

Synonyms

to jab
vsto poke someone's eye out
19 3.3

To poke quickly and sharply with a finger, hand, or object

causes accidental eye injury when struck by a pointed object
to prod
vsto poke someone's eye out
4 3.7

To poke a person, animal, or object with a stick

is about accidental eye damage from a pointed strike rather than a gentle touch

Antonyms

to protect
∞ 1.0

To keep someone or something safe from harm

How Severe

to poke someone's eye out
  • Informal
1 7.9
to scratch
262 1.0

Surface Forms

poke someone's eye out infinitive
poked someone's eye out past
poked someone's eye out past participle
poking someone's eye out present participle
pokes someone's eye out third person singular

Morphology

poke + someone's + eye + out

The meaning is directly derivable from the parts: 'poke' (to prod or stab) applied to 'someone's eye' with 'out' signaling an outward/damaging action, so the phrase communicates injuring or putting the eye out. This is a literal, compositional construction found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Poke someone's eye out comes from the very literal image of a sharp object that can poke someone's eye so hard it comes out or is badly hurt. So the phrase is used to warn about 'injuring' or 'damaging' someone's eye by accident.