[f. EYE sb.1 + SERVICE.] a. The action or conduct of an eye-servant; service performed only under inspection or under the master’s eye. † b. Service seen by the eye; outward or formal worship. c. The homage of the eye; respectful and admiring looks. rare.
1526–34. Tindale, Col. iii. 22. Not with eye seruice as men pleasers.
1550. Crowley, Last Trump, 163. Se thou serue him … not wyth eye-seruice fainedly.
1688. Delamer, Wks. (1694), 26. All their duty will be turned into eye-service.
1736. Berkeley, Disc., Wks. (1871), III. 417. This [religion] makes men obey, not with eye-service, but in sincerity of heart.
1884. J. Hall, Chr. Home, 55. Servants that can be trusted to give something better than eye-service.
b. 1641. Milton, Reform., I. 2. [To] bring the inward acts of the Spirit to the outward … ey-Service of the body.
c. 1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., lxvi. They [ladies] were worth looking at … but none so well worth eye-service as my own beloved Lorna.
