Slang dictionary
side eye
or side-eye [蝉补丑测诲听ahy]
What does side eye mean?
A side eye is a facial expression meant to convey doubt, shock, scorn, or criticism of the person it鈥檚 aimed at. It鈥檚 made by looking at someone indirectly, out of the corners of the eyes.
Where does side eye come from?
Giving someone a look out of the corner of your eyes has been a sign of contempt, disbelief, suspicion, or sneakiness for a long while. Shakespeare called this type of look askance, another use that鈥檚 commonly used today. The look is also called a sidelong glance, which Charles Dickens, for instance, uses in his 1850 novel David Copperfield.
The expression side eye, however, has its own venerable history. One of the earliest known uses of side eye goes all the way back to a 1797 periodical, which refers to being 鈥渓ooked upon with a side eye.鈥� It鈥檚 also in James Joyce鈥檚 1922 Ulysses, again a side eye, rather than increasingly common the side eye, as in giving someone the side eye. Even the verbal use, to side eye someone, goes back to at least 1916, though not historically as common as it is now.
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Since the 2010s, side eye in general has been much more commonly used in news and social media. It鈥檚 a popular enough phrase to title at least two songs, the 2006 鈥淪ide Eye鈥� by British singer-songwriter Julie Collings and the 2016 鈥淪ide Eye鈥� by American R&B artist Rob Scott.
Examples of side eye
Who uses side eye?
Side eye got a big boost from memes about Michelle Obama鈥檚 facial expression at Donald鈥檚 Trump inauguration on January 20, 2017. Photographs of the inauguration showed the first lady greeting her and her husband鈥檚 successors with what some regarded as side eye.
Side eye serves as both a noun and a verb. Giving the side eye to someone is the same as side-eying them, and both are in common use. When used as a noun, side eye frequently takes a definite article. It鈥檚 not just a side eye: it鈥檚 the side eye.
You can give the side eye figuratively, too. Whether you鈥檙e side eyeing a dubious idea or expressing disdain for someone鈥檚 behavior, you don鈥檛 have to actually use your eyes to deliver the effect of the side eye. You just need to convey or embody a strong degree of doubt, skepticism, disregard, or dismissal that鈥檚 delivered or expressed in an oblique or snarky way. For instance, author J.K. Rowling, discussing a 2015 petition that sought to bar then-candidate Donald Trump from visiting the UK, voiced her support of the very freedom of speech she feels Donald Trump uses to make bigoted statements. India鈥檚 Catch News described Rowling鈥檚 artfully backhanded remark as a 鈥渂rilliant side-eye.鈥�
There are also two emoji, 
and 
, officially known as unamused face and eyes respectively, but commonly called and used to mean side eye.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of side eye like most terms we define on 亚洲网紅露点, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of side eye that will help our users expand their word mastery.