ˈmoon-eyed, ppl. a.
[f. moon-eye + -ed2. Cf. G. mondäugig.]
1. a. Farriery. Affected with the disease of ‘moon-eyes’; moon-blind.
| 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. xii. 239, I haue seene many a slothfull and heauy horse brought to be moone eyed by the folly of his rider. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 75 The English mare that carries me..is going rapidly blind. She is moon-eyed. 1821 Sporting Mag. VIII. 202 George Parker on his examination found that she was ‘moon-eyed’. 1889 ‘C. E. Craddock’ Despot of Broomsedge Cove vi. 105 Do ye know ennything 'bout'n a horse's eyes? I be sort'n 'feard he's moon-eyed, or suthin'. 1905 A. Adams Outlet 21 Tolleston took the only blind horse in the herd... At the time of his purchase, no one could see anything in the eyeball which would indicate he was moon-eyed. |
b. Purblind; squint-eyed. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1688 Dryden Brit. Red. 94 So manifest, that even the moon-eyed sects See whom and what this Providence protects. 1736 Ainsworth Lat. Dict., Moon eyed, lusciosus, luscitiosus. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Moon-eyed hen, a squinting wench. 1886 R. E. G. Cole Gloss. Words S.-W. Lincs. 93 Old Jane, his first wife, was moon-eyed. When folks are moon-eyed, they have to gleg at you (look askance) out of the corner of the eye. 1912 Dialect Notes III. 583 Moon-eyed, half-blind. |
† 2. Having eyes adapted for seeing at night. Obs.
| 1699 Wafer in Phil. Trans. LV. 51 From their seeing so clear as they do in a moon-shiny night, we used to call them moon-eyed. 1706 Phillips (ed. 6), Moon-eyed or Owl-eyed, that can see better at Night, than by Day. 1796 New Ann. Reg. 166 Or whether blinded by the solar glare, The moon-ey'd Indian..to balsam groves repair. 1817 G. Field Chromatics (1845) §335. 165 That kind of nyctalophia [sic] called moon-eyed, which is common to the Bushmen of Southern Africa, who sleep out the day, and are blind when the sun shines, but..see well in seeming darkness. |
3. Having round, wide-open eyes, as a terrified person.
| 1790 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Compl. Ep. to J. Bruce Wks. 1812 II. 358 Moon-eyed Wonder opes her lap to thee. 1799 Campbell Pleas. Hope ii. 265 Fly, like the moon-ey'd herald of Dismay, Chased on his night-steed by the star of day. |
4. Drunk; intoxicated. U.S. slang.
| 1737 Pennsylvania Gaz. 6–13 Jan. 2/1 He sees two Moons, Merry, Middling, Moon-Ey'd, Muddled, [etc.]. 1940 Amer. Speech XV. 447/2 Sid gits moon-eyed every Saturday night. |