Some English expressions are easy to understand word by word, while others are best learned as a fixed expression.
Take your eyes off something is one of those useful everyday expressions.
🔹 Meaning
to take your eyes off something = to stop looking at something
It often suggests that you were watching something continuously and then looked away.
I took my eyes off the road for a second.
= I stopped looking at the road for a second.
She took her eyes off the screen and looked at me.
🔹 A very common variation
You’ll also frequently hear:
can’t take your eyes off something/someone
This means you can’t stop looking at it/them, usually because you find it fascinating, beautiful, surprising, or attractive.
I can’t take my eyes off this painting.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
🔹 The structure
The expression normally follows this pattern:
take + someone’s eyes + off + something/someone
Notice that it is a fixed construction. We don’t rearrange it like a freely separable phrasal verb:
❌ Take your eyes the screen off.
❌ Take off your eyes the screen.
✅ Take your eyes off the screen.
💡 Useful tip
You can also use the expression figuratively to mean stop paying attention to something:
You can’t take your eyes off the news these days.
So next time you want to say “stop looking at something”, instead of simply using look away, try:
👉 Take your eyes off it!