English Idiom – The apple of my eye.
Someone you love very much and are very proud of, often a child or grandchild.
Grandad Ted is at the bus stop. He’s only been there two minutes, but he’s already shown three strangers the photos on his phone: Lily’s first ballet show, Lily’s school nativity (she was a sheep), and Lily eating a very large ice cream. All 214 of them. Nobody minds. You can see it in his face: his granddaughter is the apple of his eye.
It’s a warm, slightly old-fashioned phrase, and you’ll hear it most from parents and grandparents. It’s almost always about one special person: the apple of your eye, not an apple.
How to Use It
The pattern is someone is the apple of someone’s eye. Change the possessive to fit the sentence:
- “She’s the apple of my eye.” (about yourself)
- “Their youngest is the apple of her dad’s eye.” (about someone else)
- “You were always the apple of Grandma’s eye.” (with a name)
Watch out: it’s eye, not eyes. And you can use it jokingly about things people love, like a car, a garden or a football team.
Why an Apple?
This idiom is more than a thousand years old. In Old English, the pupil (the dark centre of your eye) was called the apple, probably because people thought it was a round, solid ball, like an apple. Your eyesight is one of the most precious things you have, so the person you treasure most became the apple of your eye.
King Alfred the Great used the phrase in the late 800s. It later appears in the King James Bible (“he kept him as the apple of his eye”) and in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Today nobody calls their pupil an apple, but the idiom has lasted.
Similar British Expressions
- Pride and joy: “That boy is his pride and joy.” Very common in Britain, and also used for things: “The garden is her pride and joy.”
- Blue-eyed boy: someone’s favourite, who gets special treatment. Usually a little critical: “He’s the boss’s blue-eyed boy.” (Americans say fair-haired boy.)
- Think the world of someone: to love and admire them a lot. “The kids think the world of their teacher.”
Example:
- “Their youngest daughter has always been the apple of her dad’s eye.”
- “That old Mini is the apple of his eye. He polishes it every Sunday.”
- “Were you the apple of your mum’s eye when you were little?”
- “She’d been the apple of his eye from the day she was born.”
More about love and family: absence makes the heart grow fonder, puppy love and bae. More apples: an apple a day keeps the doctor away and the Cockney apples and pears. Or browse all our collections.
In the News
Spotted in the newsApple of one’s eye – World Wide Wordsworldwidewords.orgWhat is an idiom?
An idiom is a word or phrase that is not taken literally. An idiom is an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words, but has a separate meaning of its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
It means someone you love very much and are very proud of, often a child or grandchild.
In Old English, the pupil of the eye was called “the apple”, probably because people thought it was a round, solid ball. Your eyesight is precious, so the person you treasure most became “the apple of your eye”.
It’s “eye”, singular: “She’s the apple of my eye.”
Yes, informally. “That old Mini is the apple of his eye” means he loves and is proud of his car.
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