red-eye

noun

1. the condition of having bloodshot eyes, as from eyestrain or lack of sleep.
2. Also red eye, redeye. Informal. a commercial airline flight between two distant points that departs late at night and arrives early in the morning.
3. redeye(def 3).
4. an unwanted photographic effect in which a person’s iris appears to be red: caused by the reflection of a flashbulb off the blood vessels of the retina.

adjective

5. Also redeye. Informal. of or indicating a long-distance flight that leaves late at night: the red-eye special from New York to Los Angeles.

noun

1. informal
   1. an aeroplane flight leaving late at night or arriving early in the morning
   2. (as modifier)a red-eye flight

n.

“airplane flight which deprives travelers of sleep,” 1968, from the red eyes of sleeplessness; earlier as a noun meaning “raw and inferior whiskey” (1819, American English).