ox-eye, oxeye
(ˈɒksaɪ)
Also 5 oxie, oxeghe, 6 oxei, Sc. oxee, 6–8 oxey.
1. The eye of an ox; an eye like that of an ox, a large (human) eye.
| 1688 Boyle Final Causes Nat. Things, Vitiated Sight 258 If she had not had that sort of eyes, which..some call ox-eyes; for hers were swelled much beyond the size of human eyes. 1869 C. Gibbon R. Gray viii, His ox eyes were rolling more stolidly. 1892 M. Wynman My Flirtations i, A sallow, undersized Italian, with handsome ox-eyes. |
2. A popular name of various birds:
esp. the Great Titmouse (
Parus major); also locally, the Blue Titmouse (
P. cæruleus) or Blue Ox-eye, and Cole Titmouse (
P. Britannicus) or Black Ox-eye.
| 1544 Turner Avium G v b, Primum parum, Angli uocant the great titmouse or the great oxei. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 39 The oxee cryit tueit. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 188 Oxeys or great Titmice, feed, as ordinary Titmice do, upon Caterpillars, Blossoms of Trees, Bark-Worms and Flies. 1817 Sporting Mag. L. 142 A bird of the oxeye species has this year built its nest in the valve of a pump. |
b. Also, locally applied to the Ox-bird or Dunlin,
Tringa variabilis; the Tree-creeper (also
ox-eye creeper),
Certhia familiaris; the Chiff-chaff,
Phylloscopus rufus; the Willow Warbler,
P. trochilus; in N. America, to the Black-bellied Plover,
Squatarola helvetica, and the American Dunlin,
Pelidna americana.
| 1589 Rider Bibl. Schol., Birdes 1703 An Oxeye, or creeper, Certhia. 1649 Perf. Descr. Virginia (1837) 17 Ducks..Widgeons..Dottrells..Oxeyes. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. v. §4. 147 Those other Birds..a little bigger then a Wren called Ox-eye-creeper. 1806 P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 4 A wild duck, ox-eyes, rails, fieldfares. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 193 Dunlin..Ox bird or Ox eye (Essex; Kent). 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Ox-eye, only name for both the chiff-chaff and the willow warbler. 1896 P. A. Bruce Econ. Hist. Virginia I. 115 There was..the duck in all those varieties so well known to modern sportsmen, the canvas-back, the red head, the mallard, the widgeon, the dottrell, the oxeye. |
3. Applied to various plants:
a. A species of the genus
Buphthalmum (family Compositæ), of which the Central European species
B. grandiflorum and
B. cordatum, herbaceous perennials with bright yellow radiate flowers, are often cultivated in gardens.
b. The British wild plants
Chrysanthemum segetum, the Corn Marigold or Yellow Ox-eye, and
C. Leucanthemum, the White Ox-eye, Ox-eye daisy, Dog-daisy, or Moon-daisy; sometimes also (
app. by confusion) applied to species of
Anthemis with yellow or white flowers resembling these.
c. Applied by Lyte to
Adonis vernalis (family Ranunculaceæ).
d. The American composite plant
Heliopsis lævis with large yellow flowers.
e. The West-Indian composite plants, Creeping Ox-eye or West Indian Marigold,
Wedelia carnosa, and Sea-side Ox-eye,
Borrichia arborescens. (
Treas. Bot. 1866.)
| a. a 1400–50 Stockh. Med. MS. 210 Oxeye: oculus bouis. c 1450 Alphita 24/21 Butalmon uel butalmos, oculus bouis idem, anglice oxie [v.r. oxeghe]. 1551 Turner Herbal i. G v, Buphthalmus or oxey..hath leues lyke fenel and a yellowe floure greater then Camomill, lyke vnto an ey, wherupon it hath the name. c 1588 Spenser Virg. Gnat 678 Oxeye still greene, and bitter Patience. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccxlv. 606 The plant which we haue called Buphthalmum, or Oxe eie. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 321 Ox-eye, Buphthalmum. |
| b. 1625 B. Jonson Pan's Anniv., Bring corn-flag, tulips, and Adonis' flower, Fair oxeye, goldy-locks, and columbine. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 69/1 A wild Field Marygold..this is also termed an Oxe-Eye if Yellow, and a Wild Daisie if White. 1706 Phillips, Ox-eye,..also an Herb otherwise call'd Great Margaret, good for Wounds and the King's Evill. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. App., Ox-eye-daisy, a name sometimes given to the Leucanthemum of botanical writers. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 321 Ox-eye of old Authors, Anthemis. a 1795 Aikin Even. at Home xvi, One of the great ox-eye daisies in the corn. 1846 Sowerby Brit. Bot. (ed. 3), Great White Ox-eye. 1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 204 Her lap full of decapitated oxeyes. 1892 Syd. Soc. Lex., Ox-eye chamomile, Anthemis tinctoria. |
| c. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. xxxii. 189 This herbe..is called in Latine Buphthalmum and Oculus bouis... This is the right Oxe eye described by Dioscorides. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 380 Oriental Ox-eye with red and white Flowers. |
4. Applied to a sparoid fish,
Box or Boöps vulgaris; also to an elopoid fish,
Megalops cyprinoides.
| a 1642 Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts vi. (1704) 534/1 The Ox-Eye, is like the Tunney, an excellent Fish; and looks like the Eye of an Ox [coast of Brazil]. |
5. Applied to several things likened to the eye of an ox, as
a. A drinking cup in use at certain Oxford colleges;
b. Naut. A small glass bull's eye (Smyth
Sailor's Word-bk. 1867);
c. ‘A small concave mirror made, especially in Nuremberg, of glass’ (
Cent. Dict. 1890);
d. An oval dormer window
= œil-de-bœuf (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875).
| 1703 in Hearne's Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 461 Abest Creedus, quia bibit Ox-Eyes cum Bedelli uxore. [See also Note to this.] a 1843 Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. IV. 425 Oxford, All Souls... Their silver cups at the college are called ox-eyes, and an ox-eye of wormwood was a favourite draught there. 18.. Oxford during Last Cent. 65 At Corpus Christi were drinking-cups and glasses, which, from their shape, were called ox-eyes. |
6. Naut. = bull's eye 10: see
quots.| 1598 Phillips tr. Linschoten (Hakl. Soc.) II. 240 A certayne cloude, which in shew seemeth no bigger than a mans fist, and therefore by the Portingals it is called Olho do Boy, (or Oxe eye). 1705 C. Purshall Mech. Macrocosm 172 Those Dreadful Storms on the Coasts of Guinea, which the Seamen call the Ox Eye, from their Beginning; because at first it seems no bigger than an Ox's-Eye. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Ox-eye, a small cloud, or weather-gall, seen on the coast of Africa, which presages a severe storm. |
7. Comb. ox-eye arch, a pointed or Gothic arch;
ox-eye bean = horse-eye bean: see
horse n. 28 c (Simmonds
Dict. Trade 1858);
ox-eye camomile,
daisy (see 3 b);
ox-eye tom-tit (see 2 a).
| 1736 Drake Eboracum ii. ii. 532 In the Anglo-Norman age, all their arches..were nearer to the Roman taste, than the acuter oxey arch. |