eye contact
- noun
- /aɪ ˈkɒntækt/
- The dance requires that you maintain eye contact with him almost constantly.
- make eye contact
- maintain eye contact
- avoid eye contact
Whether it's a smile, longer eye contact, you know, saying hi.
- Whether it's a smile, longer eye contact, you know, saying hi.
- So the next one, never break eye contact again.
- If you have a girl making eye contact with you, just know this.
- Try to make it so that they break eye contact first before you.
- There were moments of like heated eye contact or like.
- Keep making eye contact, this is really weird.
- So that's reading people right now, eye contact when it comes to you, right?
- I mean, half of it was like a lot of eye contact work, which is super fun.
- Teach me how to write, speak, make eye contact, work a stage.
- Instead, make eye contact when you're talking to her.
- I'm good at those kind of like eye contact situations.
Examples
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In an interview, maintaining eye contact helps convey confidence and engagement.
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Instead, make eye contact when you're talking to her.
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I have a hard time with eye contact by nature.
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Whether it's a smile, longer eye contact, you know, saying hi.
-
If you have a girl making eye contact with you, just know this.
-
Try to make it so that they break eye contact first before you.
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You should make eye contact with them.
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Just make eye contact with me.
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As he spoke, he tried to maintain as much eye contact as he could with the judges.
Academic text (2009) -
High status people give eye contact and look at you when they're listening to you.
Synonyms
A long steady look at someone or something
How Direct
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the act of looking directly into another person's eyes to communicate' is directly derivable from combining 'eye' (vision organ) with 'contact' (being in touch/communication) — i.e., contact made via the eyes. This is a regular, compositional noun–noun phrase found across many languages (e.g. Spanish 'contacto visual', French 'contact visuel'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it.
Etymology
Eye contact comes from the simple picture of one person's eye meeting another person's eye, a contact or meeting between eyes. That's why eye contact means 'looking directly into another person's eyes to communicate without words' and can show interest or confidence.