General
eye-water
What does eye-water mean?
The Creole word for tears, literally 'water from the eye'.
"The eye-water start to fall when she heard the news."
Origin
Pan-Caribbean; calque possibly from West African languages.
Frequently asked questions
What does eye-water mean?
It's the Caribbean Creole word for tears — literally 'water from the eye'.
Where does the word eye-water come from?
It's a calque (word-for-word translation) thought to derive from West African languages, common across the Caribbean.
How do you use eye-water in a sentence?
You'd say 'The eye-water start to fall when she heard the news' to mean the tears began to flow.
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