public eye

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

public eye

1. (idiomatic) Almost always preceded by' the: the focus of public attention; the limelight.
   • 1892, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter X, in The American Claimant, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., →OCLC, page 97:

     The chief function of an English journal is that of all other journals the world over: it must keep the public eye fixed admiringly upon certain things, and keep it diligently diverted from certain others.

   • 1909, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 10, in The Swoop! or How Clarence Saved England:

     [T]here had been the heavy work of seeing the interviewers, signing autograph-books, sitting to photographers, writing testimonials for patent medicines, and the thousand and one other tasks, burdensome but unavoidable, of the man who is in the public eye.

   • 1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, page 255:

     It would be too much to imagine that improving stations will alone create a much needed new image in the public eye; a smartly turned out station staff is a very necessary complement to a smart station.

   • 2013 January 3, Luke Harding; Uki Goni, “Argentina urges UK to hand back Falklands and 'end colonialism'”, in The Guardian, UK:

     The president and her advisers seem convinced that by keeping the issue of the Falklands in the public eye she can embarrass London into eventual negotiations.

• limelight

• public eye at OneLook Dictionary Search