In many cultures, tugging at one’s lower eyelid is an expression of skepticism, as if to indicate that the person is being watchful and alert and won’t be taken in. In the United States, the gesture may be accompanied by a phrase like “Do you see...
In the 17th century, the verb to bate and the likely related verb, to bat, were used in falconry to mean “to flap wildly.” By the 19th century, to bat was also part of the phrase to bat one’s eyelashes. This is part of a complete...
A listener from Richmond, Virginia, remembers an old game called buckeye that consists of metaphorically pulling someone’s leg, then calling Buckeye! and tugging one’s own lower eyelid. Martha suggests that it may be related to a 19th...
Brent from San Diego asks why the expression “keep your eyes peeled” uses peeled, and whether it has anything to do with birds of prey opening their eyes. The phrase is spelled P-E-E-L, and its likely 19th-century sense is simply that the eyelids...