1. An eye of which the iris is black or very dark-colored; esp. as a mark of beauty, a dark lustrous eye; hence Black-eyed a.
a. 1667. Cowley, Lover’s Chron., ix. Black-eyed Bess, her viceroy-maid.
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, I. v. Egad, a very pretty black-eyed girl!
1839. Penny Cycl., XIV. 363/2. The Mongolian variety:—characterised by olive colour … and black eyes.
1842. Tennyson, May Queen, ii. There’s many a black black eye, they say, but none so bright as mine.
2. A discoloration of the flesh around the eye produced by a blow or contusion.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., II. Wks. 1873, II. 122. I doe not bid you beat her, nor giue her blacke eyes.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. cxii. Just like a black eye in a recent scuffle.
