red eye
1
3.6
- noun
- /ˈrɛd aɪ/
:
vuelo nocturno
- After a long day of meetings, I took the red eye from San Francisco to New York and arrived feeling sleepy in the morning.
- a red-eye flight
- take the red-eye
Examples
-
Many business travelers prefer to take the red eye to maximize their work time during the day.
-
They were taking the red-eye to Newark that night, and her bags were already packed and in the car.
Fiction book (1991) -
She often books a red eye flight to avoid spending an extra night in a hotel.
Synonyms
11
6.2
An overnight flight that leaves late and often makes you tired
5
7.5
An overnight flight when people often get little sleep and arrive tired
1
4.2
A late night plane trip that arrives the next morning and leaves you tired
Antonyms
How Tiring
1
3.6
- UK
1
2.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is directly composed from 'red' (a color) + 'eye' (the organ), so a learner who knows both words will naturally interpret it as an eye that appears red; the photographic cause (flash reflection) is a specific explanation but does not prevent understanding of the basic meaning. This simple adjectival + noun composition is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'ojos rojos') and therefore immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Red eye for a flight comes from the tired, bloodshot eyes of people who travel overnight. So a 'red eye' means a late-night flight that often makes you sleepy.