word-meaning
I read such a sentence：
The days on which the slim boy’s cocker spaniel eyes shone brighter than ever, and his brown wavy hair seemed to have a movement of their own, they knew that he must have read a ghost tale and was hatching a plot to scare someone.
Isn't cocker spaniel a dog？When “cocker spaniel eyes” is used to refer to a person's eyes，what does that mean？
OED 1 gives this definition:
6. A smartly-liveried boy acting as groom or footman; formerly often provided with standing-room on a small platform behind the carriage, and a strap to hold on by; less strictly, an outdoor boy-servant. slang. obsolescent.
The citations given here suggest that the term became current about 1817. OED offers no speculation about why the term was adopted. My guess is that it reflects the very colorful liveries which were popular in the 19th century. Livery is the formal uniform which wealthy people used to require their servants to wear. Livery was always markedly different from ordinary dress—you don't want your servants to be mistaken for your peers! As a form of 'conspicuous consumption' it was usually patterned on the formal dress of an earlier period and executed in bright, eye-catching colors, which contrasted particularly in the 19th century with the sober colors preferred by gentlemen. Here is an example of the livery worn by Queen Victoria's coachmen; note the powerful stripe effect:
@Stephie notes a source which reports that “The tiger wore an orange and black striped waistcoat which is what gave them their ‘title’.” It may very well be that the first footboy to be called a tiger wore such a waistcoat, and even that such a waistcoat was at some point the 'default' dress for footboys, just as green-and-black stripes were common for table-servants in the early 20th century. But I have been unable to find a contemporary illustration. It should also be noted that the ancient practice was that liveries were executed in colors specific to the family, so it cannot have been a universal practice.
The "over that of" is a comparison that could be replaced with "more than" or "better than". Even as native English speaker, I had to read this sentence multiple times to understand it because of how long it is. Stripping out technical details, I've reduced the sentence to get a much easier sentence to parse.
"[This technique] raises [something] by a factor of 2 to 10 times more than [something else]"
Best Answer
A cocker spaniel is a type of dog that has big round, 'soulful' eyes. This would be an example of a metaphor.
http://www.zimfamilycockers.com/Wally-June2004.jpg