goggle

Definition

To stare (at something) with wide eyes.

Etymology

From 14th century Middle English gogelen (“to roll (eyes), to look sideways”). Earlier source is unknown. The noun is attested from the 17th century. Compare Irish gog (“a nod, a slight motion”).

Example Sentences

• "[...] she frowned a displeased frown and told me for heaven's sake to stop goggling like a dead halibut. [...] She left me fogged and groping for the inner meaning, and I could see from Aunt Dahlia's goggling eyes that the basic idea hadn't got across with her either. [...] I didn't want to be hampered by an audience. When you're pushing someone into a lake, nothing embarrasses you more than having the front seats filled up with goggling spectators."
• "the rational pleas of astronomer Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) for the public to trust science and understand the seriousness of the coming disaster will sound uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has goggled in disbelief at COVID and/or vaccine denialism."
• "Inflam’d all over with Disgrace, / To be seen by her in such a Place; / Which made him hang his Head, and scoul, / And wink, and goggle like an Owl"