Meaning & use
bull's-eye
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablesport
The small center circle of a target in archery, darts or shooting, or a shot that hits that spot.
Grammar: Countable: she hit a bull's-eye. Also written bullseye.
Patterns
- hit the bull's-eye
- score a bull's-eye
He hit the bull's-eye on his second throw.
She aimed carefully and scored a bull's-eye.
The dart missed the bull's-eye by a hair.
nouncountableinformalfigurative
Something said, guessed or done that is exactly right, or the exact point of a goal or issue.
Grammar: Informal and usually singular: that answer was a bull's-eye.
Patterns
- hit the bull's-eye
- right on the bull's-eye
Your guess was a bull's-eye.
The comment hit the bull's-eye and everyone laughed.
The ad was a bull's-eye for young parents.
nouncountableBritishold-fashioned
A hard round candy, usually peppermint, popular in Britain.
Grammar: Countable and mainly British: a bag of bull's-eyes.
Patterns
- a bag of bull's-eyes
Grandad kept a jar of bull's-eyes on the shelf.
The sweet shop sold black and white bull's-eyes.
A bull's-eye lasts a long time in your mouth.
Word forms
| plural | bull's-eyes |
|---|
Common combinations
- hit the bull's-eye
- He hit the bull's-eye with his first arrow.
- score a bull's-eye
- She scored a bull's-eye in the final round.
- bull's-eye target
- The bull's-eye target hung at the end of the range.
- a perfect bull's-eye
- It was a perfect bull's-eye from forty meters.
- miss the bull's-eye
- We missed the bull's-eye but won on points.
- a bull's-eye guess
- Her bull's-eye guess surprised the quiz host.
Synonyms and how they differ
- center
- Center is a neutral word for the middle of anything, while bull's-eye names the scoring spot on a target.
- direct hit
- A direct hit means a strike that lands exactly on target and does not suggest a ringed target.
- spot on
- Spot on is an informal way to say exactly right, used as an adjective or adverb rather than a noun.
- gold
- Gold is used in archery for the center ring, and is a more specialist word.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: bull's-eye or bull's-eye vs. bulls eye?
bull's-eye vs bull's-eye vs. bulls eye
The apostrophe belongs before the s because the word is the eye of a bull, but the solid spelling bullseye is also common.
Practice
A teacher says, 'Your answer was a bull's-eye.' She means that the answer was ___.
Choose one answer.
Figuratively a bull's-eye is a perfect hit. Partly correct would be a near miss.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bull's-eye”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.