WIDE-EYED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wide-eyed mean? 

• WIDE-EYED (adjective)
  The adjective WIDE-EYED has 2 senses:

1. exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity

2. (used of eyes) fully open or extended

  Familiarity information: WIDE-EYED used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WIDE-EYED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity

Synonyms:

childlike; dewy-eyed; round-eyed; simple; wide-eyed

Context example:

listened in round-eyed wonder

Similar:

naif; naive (marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(used of eyes) fully open or extended

Synonyms:

wide; wide-eyed

Context example:

stared with wide eyes

Similar:

open; opened (used of mouth or eyes)

 Context examples 

Morning found the man haggard and worn, wide-eyed from want of sleep.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“You!” she cried. “You are—” She was now staring at me in wide-eyed wonder. I nodded my identity, in turn.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He would thrust his nose into the cool wood moss, or into the black soil where long grasses grew, and snort with joy at the fat earth smells; or he would crouch for hours, as if in concealment, behind fungus-covered trunks of fallen trees, wide-eyed and wide-eared to all that moved and sounded about him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

To see him walking like a comic opera Sultan, with this badge of authority in his hand, his black beard bristling in front of him, his toes pointing at each step, and a train of wide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in their slender drapery of bark cloth, is one of the most grotesque of all the pictures which I will carry back with me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The unnecessary noise he made (I had lain wide-eyed the whole night) must have awakened one of the hunters; for a heavy shoe whizzed through the semi-darkness, and Mr. Mugridge, with a sharp howl of pain, humbly begged everybody’s pardon.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)