oeil-de-boeuf

[ French œ-yuh-duh-bœf ]

/ French ˌœ yə dəˈbœf /

a comparatively small round or oval window, as in a frieze.

Also called oxeye.

Origin of oeil-de-boeuf

< French: literally, bull's eye

The truth is, the Oeil-de-Boeuf has rallied; to a certain unknown extent.

The French Revolution |Thomas Carlyle
What means this reticence of the Oeil-de-Boeuf, broken only by nods and shrugs?

The French Revolution |Thomas Carlyle
Circumstances made the life of courts the best obtainable; but there is no trace of French 'oeil-de-boeuf' servility.

Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) |John Addington Symonds
She flies for her life, across the Oeil-de-Boeuf; against the main door of which too Insurrection batters.

The French Revolution |Thomas Carlyle

Instead of soldiers, the Oeil-de-Boeuf sends—carpenters, to take down the platform.

The French Revolution |Thomas Carlyle

oeil-de-boeuf

/ French (œjdəbœf) /

a circular window, esp in 17th- and 18th-century French architecture

literally: bull's eye