Meaning & use
wide-eye stare
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Meanings
nouncountable
A look in which someone's eyes are opened very wide, usually showing surprise, fear, or shock.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a wide-eye stare or the wide-eye stares of the crowd.
Patterns
- a wide-eye stare at someone
- give someone a wide-eye stare
- with a wide-eye stare
She gave me a wide-eye stare when I told her the price of the tickets.
The children watched the magician with a wide-eye stare, waiting for the rabbit to appear.
His wide-eye stare told me he had not expected to see me there.
nouncountable
A fixed, open-eyed look that shows strong interest or close attention to something.
Grammar: Also countable, and often used in the plural for several people: their wide-eye stares.
Patterns
- a wide-eye stare of wonder
- fix someone with a wide-eye stare
The audience kept a wide-eye stare on the screen through the whole final scene.
He turned to the painting and stood there in a wide-eye stare of wonder.
Word forms
| plural | wide-eye stares |
|---|
Common combinations
- give someone a wide-eye stare
- The baby gave the stranger a wide-eye stare.
- a wide-eye stare of surprise
- There was a wide-eye stare of surprise on every face in the room.
- meet something with a wide-eye stare
- She met the news with a wide-eye stare and said nothing.
- a blank wide-eye stare
- He answered my question with a blank wide-eye stare.
Synonyms and how they differ
- gaze
- A gaze is any long, steady look and does not by itself suggest wide-open eyes or shock.
- gape
- A gape is an open-mouthed stare, so it includes the mouth as well as the eyes.
- wide-eyed look
- This is the more usual everyday wording and is slightly less fixed than wide-eye stare.
Word family
Commonly confused: wide-eye stare or wide-eyed?
wide-eye stare vs wide-eyed
Wide-eyed is the adjective describing a person or look; wide-eye stare is the noun for the look itself. Say she was wide-eyed, not she was wide-eye stare.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
The noun phrase a wide-eye stare fits after give someone. Option 2 uses the wrong form staring, option 3 treats the phrase as a verb, and option 4 adds an unnecessary at.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wide-eye stare”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.