Tim Bowen delivers this week’s article with a twinkle in his eye, so your eyes won’t glaze over while reading it!

If you have an infection, your eyes may be bloodshot or red. If you are tired they might be bleary, sleepy or tired, as in ‘I stumbled off the plane with crumpled clothes and bleary eyes’.

Eyes that are small, round and bright are beady, as in ‘The dog then turned its beady black eyes to me’ and ones that stick out are bulging or protruding, as in ‘The suspect was described as in his late forties with dark unkempt hair and bulging eyes’.

Apart from closing or shutting and opening your eyes, you can shield them from the sun, bright lights or glare, and you can also roll them if you move them upwards to show you are impatient, as in ‘When he heard the question, he sighed and rolled his eyes’.

If you avert your eyes, you turn them away because you cannot bear to watch something or it does not seem right for you to watch, as in ‘I can’t stand the sight of blood so I had to avert my eyes as the needle went in’.

A person’s eyes can shine in the sense that they look extremely happy or excited and, in a similar sense, eyes can light up, gleam or twinkle, as in ‘His eyes lit up when she entered the room’.

If you are bored, your eyes glaze over, as in ‘As soon as the conversation turned to house prices, I could feel my eyes glazing over’ or ‘My eyes glaze over at the slightest mention of politics’.

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