Words - skip - Brewer’s

Itching of the Eye

.

If the right eye itches it betokens laughter at hand; if the left eye, it betokens grief; but Shakespeare does not observe this distinction.

“My right eye itches now, so I shall see

My love.”

Theocritus, i. 37.

“Mine eyes do itch;

Doth that forebode weeping?”

Shakespeare: Othello, iv. 3.

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.