lay eyes on

• lay one's eyes on

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lay eyes on (third-person singular simple present lays eyes on, present participle laying eyes on, simple past and past participle laid eyes on)

1. (idiomatic) To see; look at; glimpse.
   • 1980, Teena Marie (lyrics and music), “Young Love”, in Irons in the Fire:

     I remember back in school / When I first laid my eyes on you / I saw your smile and knew right then and there

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 16, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, page 144:

     Does she regard him simply as a workman come to do a job for her, someone whom she need never lay eyes on again; or is she gabbling to hide discomfiture?

   • 2018 February 5, Samantha Masters, quoting Edie Brickell, “Paul Simon tour 2018: Who is the Simon & Garfunkel star’s wife?”, in Express.co.uk‎^[1]:

     We can show the kids the tape and say, ‘Look, that's when we first laid eyes on each other.’