[In sense 2, prob. a translation: cf. F. œil de chat, It. occhi de gatti, Pg. olhos de gatos, Ger. katzenauge, etc.]
1. The eye of a cat; a cat-like eye.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 266. Stones lyke vnto cattes eyes.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Chat, Oeil de chat … a cat-eye, or sight that is as good by night as in the day.
2. A precious stone, a variety of chalcedonic quartz, very hard and transparent, which, when cut en cabochon, displays, on being held to the light, a peculiar floating luster, resembling the contracted pupil of a cat’s eye, supposed to be caused by small parallel fibers of asbestos. The finest come from Ceylon and Malabar.
[1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 265. They bore a fine hole in these [diamonds] throughe the myddest, wherby they appere lyke the eyes of a catte.]
a. 1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 226. It [Ceylon] bringeth foorth great store of Christall Cats eyes, or Ochi de Gati.
1704. Collect. Voy. (Churchill), III. 657/1. Called Olhos de Gatos, i. e. Cats-eyes, by the Portugueses.
1798. Greville, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVIII. 414. Reflection of light, which, in a polished state, gives varieties to the cat’s eye, star-stone, sun-stone, &c.
1859. J. Lang, Wand. India, 70. Confined his purchases to a large cat’s-eye ring.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, I. I. i. 37. The Cat’s-eye is one of the jewels of which the Singhalese are especially proud.
3. A rural name of the Germander Speedwell, Veronica Chamædrys; also of the Forget-me-not, and various other small bright flowers.
1817. Keats, Calidore, 49. The glow Of the wild cat’s eyes.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., IV. 96.
