Also 6 walowe yee, whal eie, 7 whall, waled eye. [Back-formation from WALL-EYED a. In sense 1 pronounced with level stress, the first element being apprehended as an adj.]
1. An eye the iris of which is whitish, streaked, particolored, or different in hue from the other eye, or which has a divergent squint. (See WALL-EYED a. 1.) a. in human beings.
1526. Hundred Merry Tales (1866), 91. I haue a wall eye in my hed, for I neuer loke ouer my sholder this wyse but I lyghtly espye a knaue.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. ii. Two Wall-eyes, in a face forced.
1694. Lond. Gaz., No. 2965/4. He had … one Eye bigger than the other, and divers in colour, being a Hazel or Wall Eye.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxv. Whose gaunt visage and wall-eyes assumed a most hostile aspect. Ibid. (1826), Woodst., xi. Desborough was a stout bull-necked man, of middle size, with … bushy eyebrows, and wall-eyes.
1828. Craven Gloss., Wall-een, white or grey eyes.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (ed. 2), I. 239. A jolly-looking old warrior with a wall eye.
1893. Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 61. He was deeply pitted with smallpox, and had, too, a wall eye.
1899. Baring-Gould, Bk. of West, I. vii. 110. She was an ill-favoured person, with a wall-eye.
b. in horses, etc.
1523. Will of Burton (Somerset Ho.). A blak mare with one walowe yee.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 115. A wall eye is very good, such as they say Alexanders Bucephalus had.
1676. Maldon (Essex) Borough Deeds, Bundle 147, no. 6. A hewen [= hue and] cry sent out from Colchester [for] two randed geldings one of them with a waled eye.
1607. Markham, Cavel., I. 16. They are for the most part pied, with white legges, and wall eyes.
1702. Post Man, 6–8 Jan., 2/2. Stoln out of a Stable,… a black Gelding,… a white face, Wall Eyes, and 4 white Feet.
1667. Lond. Gaz., No. 207/4. Lost … a Yorkshire Buck-hound, having black spots upon his back, red ears and a wall-eye.
1787. ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsem. (1809), 23. A bald face, wall eyes, and white legs (if your horse is not a grey one) is to be preferr’d.
1822–9. Good, Study Med., IV. 202. In horses, this want of pigment constitutes what is called a wall-eye.
1849. Lever, Con Cregan, xx. ‘I know your mark.’ ‘My roan, with the wall-eye. You don’t mind a wall-eye?’
¶ c. App. misused for ‘blind eye.’
1866. Sat. Rev., 25 Aug., 229/2. Honour … never goes about apparently without one wall-eye, and it is a chance and an accident on which side of the road the wall-eye may be fixed.
2. The condition of being wall-eyed.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 428/1. Glaucoma,… a disease in the eye,… some think it to be a whal eie.
3. An animal that is wall-eyed. In the U.S. a name for various fishes: see WALL-EYED 3.
[13[?]: see WALDENEIE.]
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 17. The Wall-eye does not often exceed ten pounds in weight.
