eyelid

Definition

n. the thin piece of skin that covers and protects your eye when you close it or blink.

n. the fold of skin and muscle that can be moved to cover the eyeball, serving to protect it and keep the surface moist.

simple

“She felt her eyelids getting heavy as she fell asleep.”

contextual

“The doctor asked the patient to look up while gently pulling down the lower eyelid to check for signs of infection.”

complex

“The involuntary twitching of an eyelid, though often harmless and related to fatigue or stress, can be quite distracting during a professional presentation.”

Commonly used in the plural when referring to both eyes, or with 'upper' and 'lower' to specify the part of the eye.

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 Generally superseded non-native Middle English palpebre (“eyelid”), borrowed from Latin palpebra (“eyelid”) (see Modern English palpebra).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

eyelid(B1)