|
Reader question: Please explain “less than meets the eye” in this passage: The reported rise in the June new home sales figures was less than meets the eye. New home sales for June of 2009 were in fact the worst totals for any June since 1982. My comments: In other words, though home sales reportedly rose, the size of the increase is not as significant as it appears to be. In fact, as the next sentence explains, total sales for June of 2009 were in fact the worst for any June since 1982. To wit, gloom on the home sales front remains. “Less than meets the eye” means literally less than what meets the eye. What meets the eye is what you see. Hence if something is less than meets the eye, it’s less significant or less important or, in this case, less encouraging than first thought. In other words, those figures are unimpressive. Anyways, “less than meets the eye” is a variation from the more commonplace idiom “more than meets the eye” and that means something is better, bigger, more important or more complicated than first perceived to be. Or, to use another similar expression, there’s more to it than that. Here’s a recent media example of each, first less, then more than meets the eye: 1. EARLIER this year, Bob Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, grandly declared that “2009 saw the end of what was known as the third world”—that is, the end of a distinct, separate section of humanity that is poor, aid-dependent and does not matter very much. Is he right? | 
