eyeful n.
1. a good look (at); the person/object at which one looks.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | In Chimney Corners 248: The king’s beautiful daughter [...] took an eyeful out of Jack, an’ right well plaised she was with his appearance . | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocab. Criminal Sl. 31: eye full [...] The object of scrutiny or of attentive observation. | |
| West Broadway 243: The mere size of [the desert] will register in his mind if nothing else does, along with the other eyefuls of U.S.A. units that he has now been for weeks going across. | |
| Ulysses 729: Ill put on my best shift and drawers let him have a good eyeful out of that to make his micky stand for him. | |
| Cutie 7: She offered an eyeful which would make a brass monkey run a temperature of 209 degrees. | |
| Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 12 Jan. 19/6: To the midnight show [...] to see Evelyn Laye [...] this Laye-dy being one heavenly eyeful. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | (con. WWI) Flesh in Armour 23: [S]he faced him and he got his first eye-full of her. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Hull Dly Mail 6 June 4/2: ‘I went to the fancy dress ball as a grapefruit.’ ‘You certainly were an eyeful’. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 187: I knew they’d be turning round for an eyeful. | |
| Bluey & Curley 10 July [synd. cartoon strip] Get an eye-full of this ’ere flamin’ meat!! | |
| ‘On Broadway’ 10 Apr. [synd. col.] Russell Swann, the Persian Room magi, is neglecting the rabbits in his top hat for Gloria Gilbert, the Banjo eyeful. | |
| (con. 1941) Twenty Thousand Thieves 97: C’mon [...] I’ve seen me eyeful. | |
| Go, Man, Go! 58: The eyeful of low-slung sleekness made the model worth anybody’s stare. | |
| Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 28: Had your bleeding eyeful, mate? | |
| East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 53: Panorama‘s on first . . . yeah that’s worth an eyeful. | |
| Llama Parlour 115: The only time I copped an eyeful of him was when he needed to borrow money. | |
| ‘Slicers’ Serenade of Steel’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] Only the working girls and potential johns cruising by getting an eye and earful were out. |
2. (also eye filler) an attractive woman (as a visual spectacle).
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Mar. 2/3: I used to see little Fanny playing with her doll on her way home in the tram [...] Now she’s quite an eyeful for the front row of the stalls. | |
| On Broadway 10 July [synd. col.] He asked her age. ‘I was just 20,’ white-lied the 25-year-old eyeful. | |
 | q. in Scribner’s vol 89 200/1: Peggy (‘Flying High'’ Mosely, an eyeful, will Lohengrin it with a Wall St. lad who has plenty. | |
| ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 23 May 12/4: Willie Mae Murphy, the South Carolina eyefiller. | |
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 8: Some dame has just blown in an’ she is certainly an eyeful. | |
| ‘On Broadway’ 4 May [synd. col.] Ruth Petty, a newcomer eyeful from Chicago. | |
| ‘It Could Only Happen to Willie’ in Popular Detective Apr. 🌐 She lost her balance and fell in Willie’s lap. [...] The chair collapsed, taking Willie and the eyeful with it. | |
| Summer Glare 169: What an eye-full she is too. | |
| Dinkumization or Depommification 71: It needed guts, and you had to be a young woman and quite an eyeful to get away with it. |
In phrases
to have a good look at, to stare; often in the challenging phr. got your eyeful? aimed at one who is seen to be gazing over-intently at oneself or a (female) companion; a follow-up is ‘Want a picture?’.
| St Louis Republican (MO) mag. section 5 June 7/1: The Princess [...] passed along the row, taking a good eyeful of everyone. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 35: Ladies tailors getting an eyeful of fashion. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 7 Sept. 14/4: They Say [...] That You should get an eye full of King riding on the beach in his cadet trousers. | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 31: ‘Nix Crackin’! The mark on your left is getting an eye full. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 30 June 8/3: There is aplace where you will ‘get an eyeful of war’ — and also a double eyeful of admiration for the way the French [...] stand up under all that war has done to them. | |
| Burnley Exp. 1 Mar. 1/2: [advert.] You’ll get an eyeful when you see Dorothy Dalton in ‘ Romantic Adventuress’. | |
| (con. WWI) Soldier and Sailor Words 90: Eyeful, To take An: To have a good look at. | |
| Little Caesar (1932) 54: One of the girls pulled up her dress and fixed her garter [...] ‘Get an eyeful of that’. | |
| Thieves Like Us (1999) 34: She just went in. She got an eyeful. | |
| ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 163: I went to get an eyeful. | |
| Burnley Exp. 17 Mar. n.p.: [advert.] get an eyeful of What the Butler Saw. | |
| Yarns of Billy Borker 147: Get an eyeful of these strides. | |
| Rooted II iii: A Peeping Tom. Looking at us. Getting an eyeful. | |
| He Died with His Eyes Open 81: I got an eyeful of it [i.e. a TV programme] on the box the other night. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Be My Enemy 144: Jeez, you only had to get an eyeful of Theresa Graham of a Monday morning to nail that one. | |
| Silver [ebook] ‘There,’ she says, ‘cop an eyeful’. |