bull's-eye or bull's eye also bulls·eye  (b lz ī′)
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n. 1. a. The small central circle on a target. b. A shot that hits this circle. 2. a. A direct hit: scored a bull's-eye on the window with a snowball. b. The precise accomplishment of a goal or purpose: “Most marketing these days .... hits the bull's-eye for laughs, razzle-dazzle, and cleverness” (Jay Conrad Levinson). 3. A thick, circular piece of glass set, as in a roof or ship's deck, to admit light. 4. A circular opening or window. 5. a. A plano-convex lens used to concentrate light. b. A lantern or lamp having such a lens. 6. A piece of round hard candy. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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