eye-wateringly

• eyewateringly

eye-wateringly (comparative more eye-wateringly, superlative most eye-wateringly)

1. In a manner or to a degree that causes one’s eyes to water or tear up, often due to an emotional situation or sentimental feelings, or due to shocking or exciting events.
   • 1994 April 8, Eric Asimov, “Arts”, in New York Times:

     Another Indonesian soup, asam shrimp […] , includes incredibly fresh shrimp in their shells and okra in a tamarind broth that is wonderfully tart and sweet and eye-wateringly spicy.

   • 2012 June 7, Suzi Feay, “Where are the new UK lesbian writers?”, in The Guardian:

     It is first and foremost a literary prize, something I have to keep telling myself after reading the umpteenth eye-wateringly explicit gay sex scene.

   • 2013 October 27, Alison Taylor, “Riga, Warsaw and Bucharest: the new frontiers of fashion”, in Daily Telegraph:

     […] there are ladylike looks from Dior and Lanvin sitting alongside more rock’n’roll (and eye wateringly expensive) Balenciaga and Balmain pastel leather bombers and luxe denims.

   • 2015 December 21, Phil De Semlyen, “The Worst Movies of 2015”, in Empire:

     […] the story gave way to a lot of gung-ho nonsense about insurgents, some sub-Loaded male bonding and an eyewateringly terrible final act.

   • 2016, David Robert Grimes, quoted in Abby Ohlheiser, “Why the Internet’s biggest conspiracy theories don’t make mathematical sense,” Washington Post, 28 January, 2016,

     I hope that by showing how eye-wateringly unlikely some alleged conspiracies are, some people will reconsider their anti-science beliefs.

This adverb is only used to modify adjectives, not verbs. As can be seen in some of the quotations above, it is increasingly used as a generic intensive, more or less equivalent to extremely.