Eye-watering
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Having an odour, vapours or smoke which causes irritation to the eyes.
- 2 Having an extremely bad odour. figuratively
- 3 So expensive that (figuratively) it would make one's eyes water. figuratively
"Toyota is developing a hydrogen fuel cell car, but the research and development costs are eye-watering. By contrast, a British firm, Riversimple, is producing a cheap, compact two-seater, which will probably come to dominate the small car market, particularly for drivers who cannot plug in a car at home."
- 4 Of a shocking or surprising nature. figuratively
Example
More examples"Toyota is developing a hydrogen fuel cell car, but the research and development costs are eye-watering. By contrast, a British firm, Riversimple, is producing a cheap, compact two-seater, which will probably come to dominate the small car market, particularly for drivers who cannot plug in a car at home."
Etymology
From eye + watering.
More for "eye-watering"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.