catch someone's eye
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
attract someone's attention
Literally: have one's gaze caught
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
As Crilly is taken back into the cells, he catches my eyes.
A crisp sports bag with the tour dates and band logo printed all over it catches my eye.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “catch someone's eye” mean?
attract someone's attention Literally: have one's gaze caught
Is “catch someone's eye” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.