saucer eyes

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

Big, round, glaring eyes. Yet when a child (bless me!) I thought That thou a pair of horns had'st got, With eyes like saucers staring.

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Common questions

What does “saucer eyes” mean?

Big, round, glaring eyes. Yet when a child (bless me!) I thought That thou a pair of horns had'st got, With eyes like saucers staring.

Is “saucer eyes” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.