Eyelid

//ˈaɪ.lɪd// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A thin skin membrane that covers and moves over an eye.

    "By his neeſings a light doth ſhine, and his eyes are like the eye-liddes of the morning."

  2. 2
    either of two folds of skin that can be moved to cover or open the eye wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
palpebrabanjo eyesblepharonblepharoneyeeyeball

Example

More examples

"In the twinkling of an eyelid, the Cat leaped on the blackbird, and ate him, feathers and all."

Etymology

From Middle English eyelidd, eye-led, eiȝelid, eghe-lydd, yȝe-lydd, ehlid, yhelidd, from an unrecorded Old English *ēaghlid (“eyelid”), from Proto-West Germanic *augahlid (“eyelid”), equivalent to eye + lid. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oogenlid (“eyelid”), West Frisian eachlid (“eyelid”), Dutch ooglid (“eyelid”), German Low German Ooglidd (“eyelid”), German Augenlid (“eyelid”). Generally superseded non-native Middle English palpebre (“eyelid”), borrowed from Latin palpebra (“eyelid”) (see Modern English palpebra).

Related phrases

bat an eyeliddouble eyelidfloppy eyelid syndromehang by the eyelidssingle eyelidwithout blinking an eyelid

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.