apple of one's eye

[ ap-uhl uhv wuhnz ahy ]

noun

1. something or someone very precious or dear:

   His new baby girl was the apple of his eye.

apple of one's eye

1. The favorite object of a person's love or affection: “Linda was fond of all the horses on the ranch, but the little palomino was the apple of her eye.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of apple of one's eye¹

First recorded before 900; Old English æppel “apple,” also used to translate Latin pupillam oculī “pupil of the eye” (Psalm 18:8 of the Vulgate), figuratively extended to something or someone precious

Idioms and Phrases

Special favorite, beloved person or thing, as in The youngest was the apple of his father's eye . This term, which rests on the ancients' idea that the eye's pupil is apple-shaped and that eyes are particularly precious, appears in the Bible (Deuteronomy 32:10). [Early 1600s]