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Glite Dictionary
to believe my eyes

to believe my eyes

5 7.2
To be very surprised by what you see because it seems unreal
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : no puedo creer lo que veo
  • I just stared, not quite able to believe my eyes.
  • I just can't believe my eyes
  • I can hardly believe my eyes

I, I couldn't believe my eyes when I was looking.

Examples

  • As we neared the center of the lake, I couldn't believe my eyes.

    It Runs in the Family (1994)

  • When I looked up, I saw the Monkey King standing on the steps, and I could hardly believe my eyes.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • I cannot believe my eyes.

    The Professor and the Madman (2019)

  • - Can I believe my eyes?

    Guys and Dolls (1955)

  • But here in the museum, I could not believe my eyes.

    Academic text (1998)

  • I could not believe my eyes as I read this post.

    Blog text (33)

  • I could hardly believe my eyes.

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)

  • I was in a restaurant in DC one night, and I could not believe my eyes.

    Blog text (24)

  • I went down there on Black Friday with my daughter and a couple friends, and I could not believe my eyes when I saw Valenciaga front and center.

  • When I walked into the surprise party, I couldn't believe my eyes!

Synonyms

to gape
vsto believe my eyes
14 3.8

To look with your mouth open in surprise or wonder

expresses disbelief about reality rather than mere open-mouthed surprise
to goggle
vsto believe my eyes
2 6.1

To look with eyes wide open because you are surprised

focuses on being so surprised it feels unreal rather than only staring

Surface Forms

believe my eyes infinitive
believed my eyes past
believed my eyes past participle
believing my eyes present participle
believes my eyes third person singular

Morphology

believe + mine + eye

The meaning is directly compositional: 'believe' (accept), 'my' (possessive) and 'eyes' (what one sees) combine to mean accepting or rejecting what one sees. This pattern (e.g. 'I can't believe my eyes' ≈ 'I can't accept what I see') is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the intended sense.

Etymology

The phrase believe my eyes shows a clear picture: someone sees something so strange they almost cannot trust their own eyes and must try to believe what they see. So, it means 'to be very surprised by what you see'.