Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
sore-eyed

sore-eyed

6.3
Having red, painful eyes that feel uncomfortable and itch
  • adjective
  • /ˈsɔrˌaɪd/
translation icon : conjuntivitis
  • She woke up sore-eyed after crying all night.

Examples

  • Every morning, she felt sore-eyed due to allergies in the spring.

  • His sore-eyed expression showed how little sleep he had the previous night.

  • Makes you feel like a sore-eyed kitten with a whole basin full of milk.

    Love Me Tender (1956)

Synonyms

bloodshot
vssore-eyed
6 3.5

Eyes that look red because tiny blood vessels are full

refers to painful, inflamed eyes often from infection or irritation

How Irritated

inflamed
6 4.3
sore-eyed
6.3
watery-eyed
1 4.1

Surface Forms

sore-eyed positive

Morphology

sore-eyed = sore + eye (transparent) = sore + eye + ed

The adjective is formed by combining 'sore' + 'eye' (with adjectival -ed on the second element), yielding the straightforward meaning 'having sore eyes'.

Etymology

The word sore-eyed breaks into sore 'in pain' and eye 'eye'. So, sore-eyed literally means eyes that hurt or feel irritated, which is why we use it for red, painful, or inflamed eyes.