Meaning & use
rolling eyes
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Meanings
nounpluralinformal
The act of moving your eyes upward in a circle to show that you think something is stupid or annoying.
Grammar: Used as a plural noun, often after 'the' or 'of': 'the rolling of eyes', 'a lot of rolling eyes'.
Patterns
- rolling of eyes
- a lot of rolling eyes
Her constant rolling eyes told me she disagreed.
The teacher ignored the rolling eyes from the back row.
There was some rolling of eyes when the plan was announced.
phraseinformal
Moving your eyes upward to show annoyance, disbelief, or frustration, especially as a reaction to something.
Grammar: This is a verb phrase. The full form is 'roll your eyes'; 'rolling eyes' is the -ing form used after 'be' or as a subject.
Patterns
- be rolling eyes
- rolling eyes at someone
- rolling eyes at something
She was rolling eyes at every suggestion he made.
Rolling eyes at your boss is not a good idea.
He kept rolling his eyes during the meeting.
Common combinations
- roll your eyes
- Don't roll your eyes at me.
- a rolling of eyes
- There was a rolling of eyes when the price was announced.
- constant eye-rolling
- His constant eye-rolling annoyed everyone.
Synonyms and how they differ
- eye-rolling
- This is the more common noun or adjective form: 'eye-rolling' is often used before a noun, as in 'an eye-rolling comment'.
Word family
- eye-rolling noun
- The act of rolling your eyes; also used as an adjective.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'rolling eyes' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The verb phrase is 'roll your eyes' and needs a possessive pronoun like 'her' before 'eyes'. Option 0 is missing the possessive; option 2 is missing 'at'; option 3 uses 'to' instead of 'at'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rolling eyes”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.