Fix your eyes on
Meaning
To concentrate one's gaze and attention intently and steadily on a specific person or object.
Origin
The word "fix" itself stems from the Latin "figere," meaning to fasten or make firm—an ancient concept of making something unmoving. This sense of steadfastness found its most powerful expression in the English language through religious texts. It was the King James Bible, published in 1611, that truly cemented "fix your eyes on" into the collective consciousness, using the phrase to implore unwavering spiritual focus and devotion. Passages like "fixing our eyes on Jesus" transformed a simple instruction to look steadily into a profound call for absolute, unyielding attention, imbuing it with a depth that has persisted from sacred contexts to secular life.
Examples
- As the soloist began, the audience seemed to fix their eyes on her with complete admiration.
- The mountaineer knew he had to fix his eyes on the next handhold, not the dizzying drop below.