eyes wide open
3
4.3
- idiom
- Informal
:
con los ojos bien abiertos
- I accepted the job offer with eyes wide open, fully aware of the challenges ahead.
You said keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut thereafter.
- You said keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut thereafter.
- So please make sure that you proceed with your eyes wide open.
- If I didn't get scared for certain situations, I would just walk in with, you know, eyes wide open to a really, really dangerous situation.
Examples
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I will proceed with both eyes wide open and a willingness to observe the truth of things and decide and act accordingly.
Blog text (22) -
I know to go in with my eyes wide open...
Blog text (3) -
You came into this with eyes wide open.
-
You gotta look at this world with eyes wide open.
-
Well, as long as we both know we're going into this with our eyes wide open...
Fiction book (1994) -
But this is a career that I will go into with my eyes wide open, start at the bottom and work my way up, and leave work when the day is done.
Blog text (8) -
Now they have to keep their eyes wide open and have to recognize that people who are like this don't change.
-
Britain is sadly walking right into a tyranny; what's more, with its eyes wide open.
Blog text (10) -
In his first public comments on the lawsuit Friday, Schilling, in a written statement sent to The Associated Press, said the EDC's decision was made "with its eyes wide open and with full understanding of any risks."
Blog text (28) -
Eyes wide open, he studies everything, observes the slightest details of the station, noticing one advertisement in particular.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
1
5.4
Acting while fully aware of what could go wrong
Antonyms
How Aware
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal image of 'eyes' being 'wide' and 'open' directly evokes alertness and attentiveness, so a learner who knows the constituents can infer a basic sense of being watchful. However, the extension to the idiomatic meaning 'aware of consequences / not naive' is a conventionalized metaphorical shift (not purely literal), so the meaning is only partly predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Eyes wide open comes from the picture of a person holding their eyes very wide and open to see everything clearly and notice any dangers. So, it means 'fully aware of the possible risks'.