eye socket

American

noun

the socket or orbit of the eye.

eye socket British

noun

the nontechnical name for orbit

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of eye socket

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Preserved in nearly perfect three-dimensional detail, the skeleton includes a skull with a huge eye socket and an elongated, sword-like snout.

From Science Daily

He balled his hands into fists again and pressed them against his eye sockets.

From Literature

The single set of temporal fascia—indentations behind the eye sockets that are doubled on a reptile—is one means of scientific definition.

From The Wall Street Journal

A burning house looked to Akira like a glowing skull, its broken windows hollow like eye sockets, its exterior walls black against the bright orange fire that filled it.

From Literature

The skull has an enormous eye socket and a long sword-like snout that it used to eat fish and squid.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023