shiner
shiner — noun
- shinersingular
- shinersplural
1. a dark bruise that forms around someone's eye after being punched or hit there.
a dark bruise that forms around someone's eye after being punched or hit there.
Hao came home from the boxing class with a nasty shiner.
collocation: a nasty shiner
Christopher tripped on the stairs and woke up with a shiner the next morning.
The school nurse pressed a cold pack against Diya's shiner.
After the bar fight, Theo proudly showed off his swollen shiner.
Valentina hid her shiner behind a thick layer of makeup before work.
用法筆記
Informal and usually countable: people say 'a shiner' or 'give someone a shiner'. More casual than the neutral term 'black eye'.
常見錯誤
2. a person or thing that gives off or reflects a lot of light and so looks bright
a person or thing that gives off or reflects a lot of light and so looks bright or stands out.
Of all the stars over the desert, Venus was the brightest shiner that night.
the brightest shiner = the most shining one
Sade polished the brass lamp until it became the shiner of the whole collection.
Among the dull pebbles on the beach, one wet stone stood out as a shiner.
The new sports car in the showroom was the obvious shiner among older models.
- standout
something clearly noticeable, here because of its shine
用法筆記
Mostly descriptive or literary; in everyday speech 'a shiner' far more often means a black eye (sense 1), so this sense needs a clear context of light or brightness.
3. a small, shiny silver freshwater fish from North America, often used as live bai
a small, shiny silver freshwater fish from North America, often used as live bait by anglers.
Tuan filled his bucket with live shiners before heading out to the lake.
live shiners used as fishing bait
The bait shop sells dozens of shiners to weekend fishermen every Saturday.
shiners sold as bait
A flash of silver showed where a shiner darted under the wooden dock.
Roya hooked a small shiner and cast it into the deep green water.
- minnow
general term for small freshwater fish used as bait; a shiner is one shiny type
用法筆記
Most common in North American fishing contexts and often plural ('shiners') when referring to bait. Rarely heard outside angling.