deep-set

deep +‎ set

deep-set (comparative more deep-set, superlative most deep-set)

1. Set deeply below a surface, as on a face.

   His haggard eyes were deep-set, sunken into their sockets from exhaustion.

   • 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond:

     Deep-set and steady, with eyelashes that many a woman had envied, they [the eyes] showed the man for what he was—a sportsman and a gentleman. And the combination of the two is an unbeatable production.

2. (figurative) firmly in place; long-standing

   deep-set beliefs

   deep-set inequalities

• deepest, steeped