Yesterday the weatherman said a storm was approaching but it may not hit us. However he promisted to "keep a close eye on it."

How near to the storm must he be? If he doesn't actually have to be near it but merely watching it on a radar screen, how near to the screen must he be to warrant calling his distance close enough?

If he warns you to "keep an eye out" for an impending climatic change, does the eye have to be a good one, or will a glass eye count?

There's also the idiom, "weather eye." If you look up and your eye gets wet, it's raining; if you get hit with a building, there's a tornado or hurricane. If a bird poops in it, it's clear weather.

I could have sworn we've talked about "close eye" before, but I couldn't find the discussion. It is an interesting question, I agree. I've always thought it a metaphor for being focused.

Rather like the way the boundary between idiom and cliche is blurred, the boundary between idiom and metaphor is fluid. I'd say that "keep a close eye ..." was an idiom, but it could also be argued that it was a metaphor (or a cliche).

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
There's also the idiom, "weather eye." If you look up and your eye gets wet, it's raining; if you get hit with a building, there's a tornado or hurricane. If a bird poops in it, it's clear weather.

Can't speak on that but I surely have "weather joints", reminding me of oncoming inclement weather. "Gettin' old ain't for sissies."