E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Wall-eyed
properly means “withered-eyed.” Persons are wall-eyed when the white is unusually large, and the sight defective; hence Shakespeare has wall-eyed wrath, wall-eyed slave, etc. When King John says, “My rage was blind,” he virtually says his “wrath was wall-eyed.” (Saxon, hwelan, to wither. The word is often written whall-eyed, or whallied, from the verb whally.)
