Refers to a comparably-humorous but non-verbal version of three consonants and a dozen vowels, and involves using your forefingers or thumbs to manually "peel up" your eyelids and then groggily waggling your head to indicate to the person who requested your assistance that you're so weary that you can't even keep your eyelids open.
Sometimes when I ask my ordinarily-very-supportive sister about helping me with some task that admittedly I **could** perform all by myself but which would be a lot easier and/or more pleasant to accomplish with an assistant, she gives me the "eyelids-lift reply" to indicate that she feels really exhausted on that particular occasion. and so I respectfully "let it go" for the time-being, and then either wheezingly struggle though said arduous/disagreeable undertaking on my own, or wait till maybe the next day to ask my sister again if she could help me complete it.
by QuacksO November 22, 2018