To Catch the Red Eye

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Meaning:

To Catch the Red Eye means to take a late-night flight that arrives early in the morning.

“Ugg I am so tired; I caught the red-eye last night.”

Origin:

The term red eye has been in our language since the beginning of the 1800s, but it has transformed its meaning over time.

It was first meant as "raw and inferior whiskey," it was also used to explain various fish which had red eyes like the rock bass, and we also see it has been used to express a picture that reflects a reddish color off the retina, causing a creepy red-eye in a picture.

But as for the idiom “to catch the red-eye,” we generally use it to express a plane flight that leaves late at night and arrives early the next morning, usually a short flight, where getting enough rest is hard. For example, in the US it would be taking a flight that leaves at 11 pm from California and arriving in New York at 5 am, it is a short 6-hour flight where getting enough rest to function might be hard. So, fatigue, tiredness, and jetlag set in and can cause your eyes to look red.

Example:

Today we still hear the phrase “to catch the red-eye” when someone is taking an overnight flight. An example sentence is:

“To save money on her trip, she booked red-eye flights and slept on planes and in airports.”

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