Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)Theobjectof somebody'saffections; aperson(or sometimes athing) that someonestronglyprefers; afavorite, aloved one.Sara was never the same after losing her daughter, theapple of her eye.1535October 14 (Gregorian calendar),Myles Coverdale, transl.,Biblia: The Byble,[…](Coverdale Bible),[Cologne or Marburg]:[Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?],→OCLC,Psalmxvj:[8],folio xiiij, recto, column 2:Kepe me as theapple of an eye, defende me vnder the ſhadowe of thy wynges.Psalm 17in modern versions of the Bible.1584(date written),Richard Hakluyt, “What Speciall Meanes may Bringe Kinge Phillippe from His Highe Throne, and Make Him Equall to the Princes His Neighboures; wherewithall is Shewed His Weaknes in the West Indies”, inA Particuler Discourse Concerning the Greate Necessitie and Manifolde Comodyties that are Like to Growe to this Realme of Englande by the Westerne Discoueries Lately Attempted,[…]; published in Charles Deane, editor,A Discourse on Western Planting,[…](Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Second Series; II), Cambridge, Mass.:[…]John Wilson and Son [for theMaine Historical Society],1877,→OCLC,page59:If you touche him [Philip II of Spain] in the Indies, you touche theapple of his eye; for take away his treasure, which isneruus belli[the sinews of war], and which he hath almoste oute of his West Indies, his olde bandes of souldiers will soone be dissolved, his purposes defeated, his power and strengthe diminished, his pride abated, and his tyranie utterly suppressed.1611,The Holy Bible,[…](King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker,[…],→OCLC,Deuteronomy32:9–10, column 1:For theLordsportionishis people:Jacobisthe lot of his inheritance. He found him in a deſert land, and in the wasſe howling wilderneſſe: Hee ledde him about, he inſtructed him, hee kept him as theapple of his eye.1816,Jedadiah Cleishbotham[pseudonym;Walter Scott], chapter VII, inTales of My Landlord,[…], volume III (Old Mortality), Edinburgh:[…][James Ballantyne and Co.] forWilliam Blackwood,[…]; London:John Murray,[…],→OCLC,page139:[P]oor Richard was to me as an eldest son, theapple of my eye, and my destined heir; but he died in his duty, and I—I—[…]I live to avenge him.1858December 11, “The Smithfield Club Show”, inThe Illustrated London News, volume XXXIII, number949, London: George C. Leighton[…],→OCLC,page557, column 1:It lost, moreover, on its very first evening, one of the veryapples of its eyein the removal of Mr. Brown's grand heifer, who was the gold medallist of her sex. She was seized with distemper, and at once removed to an adjacent stall.1972October 27,Stevie Wonder, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”, inTalking Book, Detroit, Mich.:Tamla,→OCLC:You are the sunshine of my life / That's why I'll always be around / You are theapple of my eye/ Forever you'll stay in my heart1981(date recorded), “Prowlin’”, in Dominic Bugatti,Frank Musker,Christopher Cerf(lyrics),Grease 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, New York, N.Y.:RSO Records, published11 June 1982,→OCLC:You see theapple of your eye, stackin' peaches in a five foot pile / Just waitin' for some guy to come, and take her rollin' down the aisle2000February 29,Lou Watts, Harry Hamer, Danbert Nobacon,Dunstan Bruce, Jude Abbot,Boff Whalley,Alice Nutter, Neil Ferguson, “She’s Got All the Friends That Money Can Buy”, inWYSIWYG, performed byChumbawamba, London:EMI,→OCLC:She's got all the friends that money can buy / She's theapple of her daddy's eye2014, Mary Ellen Bramwell, “Healing”, inThe Apple of My Eye,[Castroville, Tex.]: Black Rose Writing, published2020,→ISBN, part 3 (Gathering Light),page223:I hoped that he had truly loved us, that we had honestly been theapples of his eye.
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