eye of the beholder
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Beauty is subjective and varies from person to person
Literally: the eye that is doing the looking
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She thinks her old car is beautiful, but that's in the eye of the beholder
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
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 “eye of the beholder” mean?
Beauty is subjective and varies from person to person Literally: the eye that is doing the looking
Is “eye of the beholder” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.