eye-opener

• eye opener, eyeopener

From eye +‎ opener.

• Audio (General Australian):

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eye-opener (plural eye-openers)

1. (literally) Something that causes the eyes to open, or that opens the eyes.
2. (informal) Something that provides a sudden insight, or makes something clear that was previously mysterious.
3. (informal, idiomatic) A startling or shocking revelation.

   A visit to the slaughterhouse was a real eye-opener to anyone who thought they understood where their food came from.

   • 2013, R. Heppner, The Lost Leaders: How Corporate America Loses Women Leaders:

     That was a very big eye-opener for me, after being very cocooned, living most of my life in the city where I was born and raised.

4. (informal, euphemistic) A strong alcoholic beverage, especially one consumed in the morning.

   As soon as I got on the plane I asked the flight attendant for an eye-opener, but all he had to offer was orange juice.

5. (informal) An attractive woman.
   • 1943 August 19, “It's high time you met ANN MILLER”, in Good Morning, number 106, London: Royal Navy Submarine Branch, →OCLC, page 1:

     Seems appropriate that Ann Miller should be in Columbia's "Reveille With Beverly." We've never seen anyone capable of "showing a leg" more attractively. At close range, too, she's an eye-opener.

   • 1998, Charles Panati, Sexy Origins and Intimate Things, New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 274:

     A woman cycling in a skirt was a hazard to herself and an eye-opener for men on the sidelines every time she raised a leg or fell off her bike.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

• eye-opening (adjective)
• open someone's eyes

• “eye-opener”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.