Eye Movements 👀 English Vocabulary with JenniferESL 😉 Idioms and collocations!

Have you ever had a staring contest with someone?

It's when you look at the other person as long as you can, and the first person to blink loses.

Let's talk about staring and other eye movements. Are you ready?

Okay, so if you didn't know before you know now that to stare is to look long and hard at someone or something.

You can stare.

You can stare at something.

One child might say to another, "Quit staring" or "Stop staring at me."

Parents usually teach their children it's not polite to stare.

My children had a staring contest, and the winner was the one who didn't blink.

To blink is to open and close your eyes very quickly.

We blink automatically. For example, we blink when someone takes our picture and the bright flash goes off.

We can also blink intentionally...on purpose, for example, to get dust out of our eyes.

There are two good expressions with blank

Using blink as a noun we can say that something happens in the blink of an eye.

For example, I had a sandwich on the table, and in the blink of an eye it was gone.

Maybe the dog took it very quickly.

Using BLINK as a verb, we can say that someone didn't even blink when they learned something.

This means that the news didn't surprise them or upset them.

For example, my friend's parents didn't even blink when she told them

she was moving to another country and wouldn't be back for a long time.

Blinking is with both eyes. Do you know what this movement is?

It's winking.

When you open and close one eye, it's a wink.

WINK is a noun and a verb.

We wink or wink at someone to signal them.

Sometimes a wink refers to a shared secret. Someone says, "You know what I mean."

Or we can use a wink to say, "I'm only joking." For example, "I'll pick you up today and my Rolls Royce."

Can a wink mean anything else? Tell me in the comments.

We have two expressions with "wink" to refer to a bad night of sleep.

I didn't sleep a wink.

I didn't get a wink of sleep.

Did that ever happen to you? How did you sleep last night? You can say, "I slept like a baby"

Or "I didn't sleep a wink."

Do you wear glasses?

Many people do. Can you imagine what it's like when they try to see without their glasses?

It's hard, right?

Maybe they end up squinting.

To squint means to close your eyes a bit because it's hard to see.

People squint to read small print or to see something very far away.

We all squint in strong sunlight if we don't have sunglasses or a hat to shade our eyes.

A somewhat similar verb is PEER.

When we peer into a dark room or peer through binoculars,

we're also working hard to see things clearly, but we're not closing our eyes as much as when we squint.

Peering into something, like peering into the distance,

suggests that you're looking very carefully.

You're working hard to see things clearly, but the conditions aren't very good.

Okay, so we've talked about blinking, winking,

squinting, and peering into things. Do you remember what "staring" means?

We can stare at things for different reasons.

Sometimes we just stare off into space and

we're not focused on anything.

GAZE is similar because it means you look at something for a long time,

but when we gaze at things, we usually feel positive emotions.

Gaze at the beautiful landscape

Gaze in wonder

Gaze up at the stars

Gaze lovingly into each other's eyes

So GAZE is followed by some word of direction: gaze at, gaze into, gaze up...

There is overlap: you can gaze out the window...you can stare out the window.

When you look long and hard at something in anger, we use a different word.

Glare.

Glare can be a noun or a verb. If someone is glaring at you, they're very angry.

Okay, let's review a bit.

Staring can be for good or bad reasons.

Gazing is usually with positive emotions, and glaring is done and anger.

Again, there's overlap. I can glare at someone.

I can stare daggers at someone.

The meaning is the same.

Let's talk about being silly for a moment. If we want to make a funny face, we might blow out our cheeks.

We could stick out our tongue.

Or we might cross our eyes.

To cross your eyes means to make both eyes look inward toward the tip of your nose.

You can give someone a cross-eyed look. You can look at someone cross-eyed.

Some people tell children not to cross their eyes because their eyes can stay that way.

It's not true, but it's probably not a good idea to strain your eye muscles that way, right?

A look that we do for fun or out of curiosity is PEEK.

To peek is to take a quick look. If I'm preparing a surprise for you, I might say, "Don't peek."

Or "No peeking."

That means, "Don't even try to take a quick look."

Grown-ups play peek-a-boo with babies and little children to make them laugh.

Other quick looks are GLIMPSE and GLANCE. They sound similar, right?

We tend to use "glimpse" as a noun as in "catch a glimpse of something."

A witness might tell the police that they didn't see any faces at the robbery.

They only caught a glimpse of a tall person in dark clothes.

So they got a quick limited look at the robber.

We often use "glance" as a verb

"Glance" is followed by a word explaining the direction of our look:

glance at, glance around,

glance over. I can glance at my cell phone to check the time.

I can glance around the room to see who's there.

If I slowed my look around the room down a bit and did it with more care, it wouldn't be a glance anymore.

I would be scanning the room.

To scan is to look carefully because you're searching for someone or something.

When you go to a restaurant to meet friends, the first thing you do is scan the place

to see if they arrived if they didn't text you already.

We can also scan when we read. We can scan the headlines to see what the top stories are in the news.

It's a somewhat quick movement, but it's also a careful way of looking at something because you want to find something.

Do you think you remember all the words we've covered? Let's review.

If I jump and scare you by saying "Boo!" what might you do?

Well, you might stare at me as if I'm crazy, but you'd likely blink you'd blink in surprise.

If you saw a beautiful sunset on the horizon, how would you look at it?

You might gaze at the sunset or you could stare in wonder.

If I want to signal you quietly, what can I do?

I can wink.

If I cross my eyes, am I being silly or serious?

Silly, right?

Let's separate words into quick movements and longer actions.

I'll say a word and you tell me which group it belongs to.

Glance

Glimpse

Gaze

Wink

Glare

Scan

Stare

Peek

Blink

Final question: what movements do we make with our eyes when we can't see very well or very easily?

We might squint to see something very small or very far.

We also peer into places that are far, dark, or deep.

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