Origin Story
The nundok in nundok deurida means the charged force of a gaze brimming with greed. The dok here is not so much venom like a snake's as the thick, sharp intensity that hangs in a stare fixed hard on something. In Korean, a powerful working of the mind is often expressed as dok. When you want something so badly that your heart leans toward it, the first thing to change is your eyes: you cannot tear them off the object, and you keep glancing at it, watching for a chance. To "set" (deurida) that covetous gaze upon a target is precisely nundok deurida. So the phrase means not merely looking, but watering at the mouth with want and biding your time to seize the thing.
Korean has many phrases that lodge a strong emotion in the eyes — "to light a fire in one's eyes," "to light double wicks in one's eyes." Nundok springs from the same instinct, giving the feeling of greed a shape as the force behind a gaze.
Meaning Evolution
How It Is Used
My younger sibling has had their eye on (nundok deurida) my new shoes.
There's a rumor that the company has its eye on (nundok deurida) our technology.
The child gazed longingly (nundok deurida) at the cake in the display case.
Related Words
Memory Hook
Picture that intense stare you can't pull off something you want — the "venomous gaze."
"Greed first releases its venom into the gaze."