Having eyes with a moist, glistening appearance, especially as indicating that one is on the verge of crying or that one is experiencing strong emotions.
circa1910Stewart Edward White, The Call of the North, ch. 1:One she saw clearly—a dewy-eyed, lovely woman who murmured loving, broken words.
2000, Romesh Ratnesar, "The Victory Lap?," Time Magazine Europe, 12 June:Bill Clinton has never shied away from displays of dewy-eyed, lip-biting sentimentality.
(figuratively) Naive or innocent in the manner of a child.
1918, John Galsworthy, "The Apple Tree" in Five Tales:At one moment he gave himself up completely to his pride at having captured this pretty, trustful, dewy-eyed thing!
1922, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Robin, ch. 21:Dowie could scarcely have told what phrase or word at last suddenly brought up before her a picture of the nursery in the house in Mayfair—the feeling of a warm soft childish body pressed close to her knee, the look of a tender, dewy-eyed small face and the sound of a small yearning voice saying: "I want to kiss you, Dowie."
