What Does It Mean When He Stares Into My Eyes Without Smiling?

“He stares into my eyes without smiling. What does that even mean?”

How many times has this happened to you? You’re at a club or a house party and all you can see is that one guy who doesn’t take his eyes off of you.

Even during the day when you’re just getting your coffee, you can’t help but notice that he’s constantly staring at you. Is he that type of guy who just wants to make you feel uncomfortable or is there a different reason for his behavior?

All of us have been in these situations one too many times. It’s never easy to let go of that weird feeling that creeps up your spine. You want to believe that he’s mesmerized by you but you may not be seeing the flirty face that men usually put on.

Prolonged eye contact with a guy can be both intimidating and exciting. It gives you enough space to flirt with him but it also enables you to shut down his advances before he even has a chance to go after you.

A lot can go through your mind in that particular moment and you shouldn’t just brush it aside as something insignificant. There are multiple reasons why he stares into your eyes without smiling and my experience says that you should be aware of them.

What does it mean when he stares into your eyes without smiling?

1. He’s checking you out

The most apparent reason why a guy stares into your eyes without smiling is that he’s checking you out and I’m telling you this from experience. This is mostly true when you don’t know a guy that well and he’s just trying to assess whether he’s interested in you or if it’s just a fleeting moment of attraction.

You’d think that he’d come up to you right away but he’s making sure that it’s not his mind playing tricks on him. He’s checking you out and making sure that he likes what he’s looking at.

That’s when his eyes will roam your body and your face and he’ll try to see how you behave when you’re around your friends. In this state of concentration, he doesn’t understand that he can be seen as being creepy. Unless he snaps out of it, he’ll continue to make you feel uncomfortable.

2. He likes you

You’ll see many more signs that he likes you before he even starts staring at you without a smile on his face. He’ll start to text you frequently, he’ll mimic your behavior, and he’ll even try to get to know you better in other ways.

You’ll know that he likes you because he won’t be shy about staring at you. He’ll want you to know that he’s looking.

If he wasn’t going to make it crystal clear then he would’ve averted his gaze from you. He needs you to see that he’s thinking about you and that he’s been wanting to approach you for quite some time now.

You know, a guy wouldn’t usually do this type of thing if he wasn’t going to walk over to you. However, he may even wait for you to make the first move.

Does that assure you that he’s genuinely interested in you?

3. He admires you because he knows he can’t have you

Sometimes, when a guy stares into my eyes without smiling, I know that he won’t come up to me to spark a conversation.

Very often, you’ll see a guy do this when he’s too insecure to go up to you or when you’re with your boyfriend and he doesn’t have the right to flirt with you.

Whatever the reason, he could simply be trying to soak up your beauty. You may not even realize how pretty you look in that particular moment but he can definitely appreciate a beautiful woman.

He trusts that he won’t make you feel uncomfortable this way or that you won’t interpret his actions as anything other than admiration.

4. He’s lost in his thoughts

You know just as well as I do that everyone can get lost in their thoughts. Their eyes just get locked on one spot and they don’t seem to blink at all.

Believe it or not, it could also happen to this guy. You could easily be the spot he focuses on when he’s daydreaming even though you’re not the subject of his daydream. He just gets so lost in his thoughts that you think that he has some hidden agenda with you.

However, it’s quite easy to spot this in a guy. He won’t blink and it doesn’t matter how many times you try to send him a silent message that you’re uncomfortable, he simply won’t react. He becomes so unaffected by anything that happens between you two that there’s no better explanation for his behavior.

If you manage to see a moment when he blinks and realizes that he’s been lost in his thoughts, he’ll just look away. He’ll act as if he didn’t just give you the creeps and just continue with his life.

You’ll stay stuck in the moment but he obviously couldn’t care less. He probably came up with a solution to the problem he was thinking so hard about.

5. You caught him off guard

When a guy stares into my eyes without smiling, it’s usually when I catch him off guard. You’ll see what I mean when you find yourself in this situation.

A man will usually smile to show you that he means no harm or that he’s flirting with you. When he just stares at you blankly, you’ll get the chills because you’ll think that he’s a psycho.

He probably looked at you when you weren’t paying attention and he thought that he was safe. He was looking at you and trying to decipher who you were or whether he could approach you.

While he was concentrating, he didn’t realize that you were turning to look at him so he had to get himself out of that trance. Because of how nervous and embarrassed he got, he forgot to smile at you to reassure you that he was just being friendly. And now you’re scared and he’s ashamed.

6. He’s trying to establish dominance

How would a guy establish dominance over you if he was all giddy and clumsy about it? This man needs to make sure that you understand what he wants from you. He can’t show you that he’s the one in charge if he doesn’t give you chills for a moment.

He needs to make you feel like you’re the little lamb while he’s the big bad wolf and we can say with certainty that an alpha male would do such a thing to get the woman he desires the most. He’ll look into your eyes without smiling but he’ll make other moves with his face. For example, he’ll raise an eyebrow or he’ll wink at you.

He wants to show you that he’s completely in charge of the situation. If he loses control, then he won’t be able to go up to you.

If he sees that you’re smiling at him and you’re getting shy, he’ll probably spark up a conversation with you. He’ll know that you’ve caught on to his little game and he caught his prey.

Most men have this weird need to be predatory and to make sure that you understand who’s in charge and who’s supposed to be the submissive one. You probably gave him a reason to trust that he can catch your attention with this little trick of his.

If you show him that you have no interest in his stupid little games, then he’ll move on to someone more compliant. Or he may be intrigued by you to the point where he tries even harder. Who knows?

7. He’s talking about you

“What does it mean when he stares into my eyes without smiling?” Does he look over at his friends while he’s talking? Then he averts his gaze from you to listen to what his friends are saying?

Are they laughing while also looking at you? Or does it seem like he’s trying to see through you when he’s looking at you?

There’s a good chance that he’s talking about you. He wouldn’t be looking at you so much if he was talking about anything else with his friends.

You probably understand that because you do the same thing with your female friends. Whenever you talk about someone, you tend to look at that person and you don’t try to be subtle about it.

However, it doesn’t have to mean that he’s talking negatively about you. But it’s obvious that he’s talking about you and that you’re the center of his attention right now.

8. He doesn’t like you

Do you know the guy? Do you know his group of friends? Has he been staring at you and he’s not even trying to smile and make you feel comfortable?

Well, if yes, then he probably doesn’t like you. There are little things that you can watch out for when you catch him staring.

Pay attention to whether he’s frowning because that’s an obvious sign of disliking you. Another facial expression that you can look out for is when his eyebrows are raised but they don’t change the frown on his face.

It’s like he’s trying to see through you and to uncover all the nasty things he thinks of you. He wants to see for himself that he has a reason for the dislike he feels toward you. He probably doesn’t even have a good reason for his judgment but his perception of you should be none of your business.

9. He’s just creepy without being aware of it

Sometimes, the reason why he stares into your eyes without smiling doesn’t matter. He ignores everyone to lock eyes with you. Some people simply have no social skills and they’re just uncomfortable to be around.

You shouldn’t be mean to the poor guy or make him uncomfortable just because he’s been staring for some time. However, you do have the right to tell him that he’s being inappropriate.

I can assure you that it’ll be very confusing for him because he doesn’t mean to make you feel weird about it. It doesn’t matter what his reasoning is, it’s just extremely creepy when he continues to stare at you without even taking a moment to blink.

Does he think that that’s attractive? You won’t know unless you ask him directly but you could also ignore him instead of making any assumptions.

What can you do when he stares into your eyes without smiling?

Now that we’ve established many things that his stare could mean, you may want to think about the things you can do when he’s staring at you. There’s a multitude of things that are going through your head and you may freeze if you don’t have a response ready for it.

You could make a fool of yourself while he’s intently watching you. You have all of his attention right now, so you may as well use it in your favor. Play this smartly and he’ll never make you uncomfortable again.

1. Turn it into a staring contest

The first thing you can do is turn this into a staring contest. I understand that it sounds silly, as you’re not in kindergarten anymore, so why would you play this stupid game with him?

But here we are. You can just as easily play along with him and see where all of this could lead.

Study the way he’s watching you. Look at his body language and his facial expressions and be aware of how he makes you feel. Now use all of that information against him.

Take up the same stance and look at him the same way he’s looking at you. The first one who looks away loses because it’s obvious who’s established dominance at that point.

Show him that two can play that game and he won’t get you to crumble under his stare that easily. You can win and you’ll get him to stop his stupid charade.

2. Be the one to go up to him

It doesn’t matter whether you like the guy or not, you could just as easily go up to him and ask what’s going on.

Going up to him is always the best option when a guy stares into your eyes without smiling. I know that it’s intimidating but your confidence will get a quick boost.

If you think that he’s flirting with you, you could go up to him and introduce yourself. Tell him that you saw him staring at you and that you want to ask him why. You could even make a joke of it and ask him whether there’s something on your face that he likes.

However, if you can see his distaste for what he’s seeing or you can see that he’s talking about you, you may as well confront him about it. You need to be able to fend for yourself and show him that he can’t gossip right there in front of you and that a little bit of respect wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Who knows, maybe you’ll change his mind if you stand up for yourself. Either way, you need to be able to show him that you’re not someone to mess with.

3. Smile at him

When a guy’s staring at you, the safest thing you can do is smile at him. If you see that he’s flirting with you, make sure to smile in a way that feels most natural to you. A forced smile makes you look like you’re grimacing and you don’t want that.

It doesn’t matter whether you smile shyly or confidently at him; he’ll get the memo and he’ll come up to you to talk to you. That’s all the confirmation he needs to make the first move and spark a conversation.

If you see that he’s talking about you, something you can also do is smile at him to let him know that you caught him. You can show your dislike for his tacky behavior.

Smile at him while raising an eyebrow and looking down at him. Don’t let him win by making you feel insecure about yourself. Smile and show him that you’re completely unaffected.

4. Wink at him

When he stares at your eyes without smiling, my genuine advice for you is to throw him off balance with an audacious move like this. This is a bold move and you need to be very confident to get it across in a way that’ll be beneficial to you.

You can’t wink at him when he’s looking at you like he’s just lost in thought, though, as he won’t even realize what you’re doing. However, when you know that he’s checking you out, bring your drink up to your lips and wink at him over the rim of your glass.

It’ll give you a way out if he looks disinterested afterward because you can simply say that it wasn’t meant for him.

When the glass is covering your face, he won’t be able to read your entire expression. You can also do it without the unnecessary prop but only when you know for sure that he’s been flirting with you from across the room.

5. Be obvious while checking him out

Well, if he can be so blunt about checking you out, why don’t you return the favor? I know that it can be very challenging for you if you don’t have the confidence but don’t shy away from his stare.

If he’s scanning your body with his eyes, do the same thing in return. Smirk, look him up and down, and see the way the atmosphere around you changes.

He’ll understand that as an invitation to come and talk to you. He won’t just see you as prey at that point, he’ll know that you’re just as dominant as he is.

Don’t break eye contact to please him but rather exert your control over the situation. Make him want to fight for you by being active from a distance. He’ll want you more the more you keep flirting with him.

You can even position your body in a way that’ll tell him that you’re interested. You can do this by facing him or even by turning your body away from him but keeping your head turned in his direction.

You’ve seen the way women do these things in movies. Your feminine energy will shine through right away and he’ll want to get to know you even more.

This way, you may even be the one to make him more insecure or make him blush right away.

6. Just walk away

“But what if he stares into my eyes without smiling and he just makes me uncomfortable?”

Well, then, your best bet is to just walk away where he won’t be able to see you. If it gets worse and he continues to follow you around, you need to get away from him as soon as possible.

More often than not, men aren’t aware of just how problematic their behavior can be. He may not even do this on purpose but it’ll still make you feel like you’re being watched.

You can’t just go up to him, throw a tantrum, and hope for the best. You need to do this tactically.

If you believe that you’re in actual danger, then get the hell out of there. Call your friends, stay on the phone with them, and share your location with them. Do whatever you can to stay safe.

I know that it shouldn’t be up to you, as you’re the victim in this situation, but don’t let yourself be tempted to just brush his creepy behavior aside. Trust your gut.

If your gut feeling is telling you that you’re not safe and that you can’t trust that man, then don’t even try to convince yourself into staying. Keep yourself safe at all times, even if it may insult him.