"look-see" meaning in English

See look-see in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: look-sees [plural]
Etymology: Borrowed from Chinese Pidgin English look-see. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|cpi|look-see}} Chinese Pidgin English look-see Head templates: {{en-noun}} look-see (plural look-sees)
  1. (informal) A brief examination, a peek or glance. Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-look-see-en-noun-rJvuBV1z
  2. A person who serves as lookout or scout. Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-look-see-en-noun-O2eA9FCp Disambiguation of People: 1 47 26 27
  3. An audition attended by an actor or model so that they can be visually appraised. Synonyms: go-see
    Sense id: en-look-see-en-noun-YHICtGF7 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 2 entries, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 12 19 53 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 2 entries: 10 10 67 13 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 8 7 76 9
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: looksee, looksie, looksy

Verb

Forms: look-sees [present, singular, third-person], look-seeing [participle, present], look-saw [past], look-seen [participle, past]
Etymology: Borrowed from Chinese Pidgin English look-see. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|cpi|look-see}} Chinese Pidgin English look-see Head templates: {{en-verb|look-sees|look-seeing|look-saw|look-seen}} look-see (third-person singular simple present look-sees, present participle look-seeing, simple past look-saw, past participle look-seen)
  1. (transitive, intransitive) To make a quick inspection, especially as a lookout or scout. Tags: intransitive, transitive Related terms: once-over, spot check
    Sense id: en-look-see-en-verb-C3VqS8D5
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: looksee, looksie, looksy

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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      "expansion": "Chinese Pidgin English look-see",
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          "text": "I’ve had a look-see at your work, and I think you’ve done a pretty good job of things.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "I'll just take a look-see at the problem and come right back, then we can go to lunch.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "He gave me a quick look-see at what they're working on.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 43:",
          "text": "‘It’s the first native island I ever called at where the whole tribe didn’t come down to the beach for a look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon, →ISBN, page 33:",
          "text": "I'm going up in the Cub to take a look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Jackie Collins, Hollywood Kids:",
          "text": "You'll do what I do. Meet and greet. Then read through the sides with the actors, unless they're on a look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "(informal) A brief examination, a peek or glance."
      ],
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          "type": "quote"
        }
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        {
          "ref": "2005, Lynne Warren, Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, page 489:",
          "text": "The basic use of the comp is to allow an art or casting director to select the model type needed for a particular assignment. This is generally followed by a casting call or a \"look-see\" for a more detailed evaluation of the models.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Melissa de la Cruz, Crazy Hot, page 270:",
          "text": "J. is dating P. at NYU and modeling on the side. They're planning to meet us in Paris for spring break so J. can go to some look-sees (and eat some escargot, obv.).",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
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      "id": "en-look-see-en-noun-YHICtGF7",
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          "visually",
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        {
          "word": "go-see"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "looksee"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "looksie"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "looksy"
    }
  ],
  "word": "look-see"
}

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  "senses": [
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      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015, Zhang Kaiyuan, Donald MacInnis, Eyewitnesses to Massacre:",
          "text": "I told Kola and he went down in the p.m. to look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, John Boom -, The Watch of the Golden Dragon Turtle:",
          "text": "When I look-saw my brother's sunstone I knew it was mighty powerful magic.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Bill Cariad, It's Only Words:",
          "text": "Well I've known good and bad times, and laughed till I cried And I've been asked the questions and sometimes I lied I'm what some would call teak, and some would call weak You can look-see but maybe I'm not what you seek.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "To make a quick inspection, especially as a lookout or scout."
      ],
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        "(transitive, intransitive) To make a quick inspection, especially as a lookout or scout."
      ],
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          "word": "once-over"
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          "word": "spot check"
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      "word": "looksee"
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      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
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  "word": "look-see"
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        {
          "text": "I’ve had a look-see at your work, and I think you’ve done a pretty good job of things.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "I'll just take a look-see at the problem and come right back, then we can go to lunch.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "He gave me a quick look-see at what they're working on.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 43:",
          "text": "‘It’s the first native island I ever called at where the whole tribe didn’t come down to the beach for a look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1999, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon, →ISBN, page 33:",
          "text": "I'm going up in the Cub to take a look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "2012, Jackie Collins, Hollywood Kids:",
          "text": "You'll do what I do. Meet and greet. Then read through the sides with the actors, unless they're on a look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
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        }
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          "text": "The basic use of the comp is to allow an art or casting director to select the model type needed for a particular assignment. This is generally followed by a casting call or a \"look-see\" for a more detailed evaluation of the models.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Melissa de la Cruz, Crazy Hot, page 270:",
          "text": "J. is dating P. at NYU and modeling on the side. They're planning to meet us in Paris for spring break so J. can go to some look-sees (and eat some escargot, obv.).",
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}

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          "text": "I told Kola and he went down in the p.m. to look-see.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, John Boom -, The Watch of the Golden Dragon Turtle:",
          "text": "When I look-saw my brother's sunstone I knew it was mighty powerful magic.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Bill Cariad, It's Only Words:",
          "text": "Well I've known good and bad times, and laughed till I cried And I've been asked the questions and sometimes I lied I'm what some would call teak, and some would call weak You can look-see but maybe I'm not what you seek.",
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        "To make a quick inspection, especially as a lookout or scout."
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        "(transitive, intransitive) To make a quick inspection, especially as a lookout or scout."
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    {
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  "word": "look-see"
}

Download raw JSONL data for look-see meaning in English (5.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (bb46d54 and 0c3c9f6). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.