👁️ Irritated eye ✈️ Overnight flight 🍺 Beer cocktail 📸 Photo flash effect

red eye

1 6.4

A drink made by mixing beer with tomato juice, sometimes with a raw egg

noun
/ˈrɛd aɪ/

: cóctel red eye

The bartender mixed a red eye using tomato juice, beer, and a dash of hot sauce.

Examples

I ordered a red eye at the bar.
He ordered a red eye at the bar to try something different from his usual beer.
Some people add a raw egg to their red eye for extra richness.
She enjoys a red eye on weekends.
At brunch, she ordered a red eye, combining her love for beer and tomato juice.
After the long night, he needed a refreshing red eye to start his day.
Mixing a red eye with just the right amount of spices creates a flavorful drink.

Surface Forms

red eye singular

red eyes plural

Morphology

red + eye

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 the drink may come from how it looks: tomato juice gives a deep red colour and a raw egg or round foam can make it look like an eye. That's why the beer-and-tomato mix is called a 'red eye'.