eyebrow

UK/ˈaɪˌbɹaʊ/US/ˈaɪˌbɹaʊ/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,152 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: eyebrows

An eyebrow is the line of hair above each eye. You raise them when surprised and lower them when cross.

They keep sweat out of the eyes, which is the practical job, but their real work is signalling, since eyebrows carry an enormous amount of human expression. The idioms follow: raising an eyebrow means showing surprise or mild disapproval, and something that raises eyebrows causes talk. Grooming has made them an industry of their own, with threading, tinting and pencilling. The word is one word.

Definitions of eyebrow

1nouneyebrowThe strip of hair above the eye.B2
“He raised one eyebrow and said nothing.”

Phrases it lives in

raise eyebrows — cause surprise or mild disapproval

Where it comes from

Old English
ēaganbrū — eyebrow
Middle English
eȝebreu
English, today
eyebrow

From Middle English eȝebreu, alteration of Old English ēaganbrū (“eyebrow”), equivalent to eye + brow. The corresponding Old English ēagbrǣw meant "eyelid". Compare Dutch oogbrauw (“eyelid; eyelash; eyebrow”), German Augenbraue (“eyebrow”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Body & Health, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 1 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

eyebrow in the wild

Almost any area of the body can be waxed, including eyebrows, face, pubic hair (called bikini waxing or intimate waxing), legs, arms, back, abdomen, chest, knuckles, and feet.
Waxing
An eyebrow is an area of short terminal hairs above each eye that follows the shape of the lower margin of the brow ridges of some mammals.
Eyebrow
In humans, eyebrows serve two main functions: first, prevention of sweat, water, and other debris from falling down into the eye socket, and second, communication through facial expression.
Eyebrow
A horizontal piercing of the eyebrow is known as a horizontal eyebrow piercing.
Eyebrow piercing
A unibrow (or monobrow; called synophrys in medicine) is a single eyebrow created when the two eyebrows meet in the middle above the bridge of the nose.
Unibrow

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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