set eyes on
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She had known when she set eyes on them that they were nothing to do with the Smoke and nothing to do with the expedition that was preparing.
Guy's just about the most irresistible male I've ever set eyes on,’ Lucy said dreamily, adding hastily, ‘ Next to Charles, of course!’
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “set eyes on” mean?
to see someone or something for the first time Literally: fix one's gaze on
Is “set eyes on” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.