big eye

noun

Insomnia due to the lengths of the days and nights in the polar regions.

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Meanings

nounbig eye (uncountable)
  1. uncountableAntarcticaInsomnia due to the lengths of the days and nights in the polar regions.

    He would permit Mrs Leeming, he said with a sly Irish smile, to visit the pit site only if she got a full night's sleep, no big-eye, no waiting up for the midnight sun.

    1969, Thomas Keneally, The Survivor
    2 more examples

    One of the favorite myths of polar expeditions involves the "Big Eye," the fierce insomnia which is said to persecute the new arrival and which has been lent an almost legendary aura.

    1969, Gay Gaer Luce, Julius Segal, Insomnia, Doubleday, page 7

    They had a cinema with several shows each week, but I missed these. There was provision for 'the big eye', their term for insomnia, so that anyone afflicted could watch a movie at virtually any time.

    2009, Jon Stephenson, Crevasse Roulette, Rosenberg, →ISBN, page 113
Cite this entry
APA

big eye. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20eye

MLA

“big eye.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20eye. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “big eye,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20eye.

Source: big eye on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.