look

Troponyms: glance; see also Thesaurus:stare

They kept looking at me.

Don’t look in the closet.

Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady.[…]She looked around expectantly, and recognizing Mrs. Cooke's maid[…]Miss Thorn greeted her with a smile which greatly prepossessed us in her favor.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Timothy Leary's dead.
 No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.

1968, Ray Thomas, “Legend of a Mind”, in In Search of the Lost Chord, performed by The Moody Blues:

To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes.

(intransitive) As an intransitive verb, often with "at".

To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes.

As an intransitive verb, often with "at".

Look what you did to him!

Look who's back!

Look how they massacred my boy.

(transitive, colloquial) As a transitive verb, often in the imperative; chiefly takes relative clause as direct object.

It looks as if it’s going to rain soon. or It looks like it’s going to rain soon. or It looks like rain [is coming].

Our new boss looks to be a lot friendlier.

It looks as if [or like] I'm stuck with you.

Ostriches look like emus to some people, but they are only distantly related.

(UK) He always looks like scoring a goal if not two.

THERE is a pleaſure in owning obligations which it is a pleaſure to have received; but ſhould I publiſh any favours done me by your Lordſhip, I am afraid it would look more like vanity, than gratitude.

c. 1701-03, Joseph Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c., Dedication:

So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

You wake up next morning on what looks like Salisbury Plain, only here you climb up the side of every combe, round the end and out the other side.

1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 264-265:

He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy.

1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

And when scrum-half Ben Youngs, who had a poor game, was burgled by opposite number Irakli Abuseridze and the ball shipped down the line to Irakli Machkhaneli, it looked like Georgia had scored a try of their own, but the winger's foot was in touch.

2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:

Chelsea's youngsters, who looked lively throughout, then combined for the second goal in the seventh minute. Romeu's shot was saved by Wolves goalkeeper Dorus De Vries but Piazon kept the ball alive and turned it back for an unmarked Bertrand to blast home.

From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

That painting looks nice.

You’re looking worried. What is the matter?

You looked a fool when you slipped on a banana peel.

Once, slipping the money clandestinely, just in the act of taking leave, he slipt it not into her hand but on the floor, and another had it; whereupon the poor Monk, coming to know it, looked mere despair for some days[…].

1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, chapter 6, Monk Samson:

(copulative) To give an appearance of being.

(intransitive, often with "for") To search for, to try to find.

The hotel looks over the valleys of the HinduKush.

1769, Benjamin Blayney (editor), King James Bible, Oxford standard text, Ezekiel, xi, 1,
Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD's house, which looketh eastward:

Wornath-Mavai lieth in a valley and looketh towards the south, and on the slopes of it Sish rested among the flowers when Sish was young.

1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:

I look to each hour for my lover’s arrival.

1596, Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queene, Book VI, Canto XI, 1750, The Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 4, page 139,

"Ain't gone be no Rikers Island for you next time," I warned him. "You get tapped on another gun charge and you looking at some upstate time."
Looking each Hour into Death's Mouth to fall,

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108:

Gloster, what ere we like, thou art Protector,
And lookest to command the Prince and Realme.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,

(transitive) To express or manifest by a look.

"Look to it yourself, father," answered Telemachus, "for they say you are the wisest counsellor in the world, and that there is no other mortal man who can compare with you.[…]

1898, Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, The Odyssey:

(transitive, often with "to") To make sure of, to see to.

Look out of the window [i.e. lean out] while I speak to you.

I have[…]more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the overleather.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act INDUCTION, scene ii]:

(dated, sometimes figurative) To show oneself in looking.

Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our Sprit-ſail, and ſtood by to hand the Fore-ſail; but making foul Weather, we look'd the Guns were all faſt, and handed the Miſſen.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 151:

(transitive, archaic or dialectal) To check, to make sure (of something).

Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.[…]She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now,[…].

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(transitive, obsolete) To look at; to turn the eyes toward.

c. 1552–1599, Edmund Spenser, unidentified sonnet,
Looking my love, I go from place to place,
Like a young fawn that late hath lost the hind;
And seek each where, where last I saw her face,
Whose image yet I carry fresh in mind.

(transitive, obsolete) To seek; to search for.

to look down opposition

1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy, Act 3, Scene 1, 1701, The Comedies, Tragedies, and Operas Written by John Dryden, Esq, Volume 2, page 464,
A Spirit fit to start into an Empire,
And look the World to Law.

Ovid might have evaded her entreaties by means of an excuse. But her eyes were irresistible: they looked him into submission in an instant.

1882, Wilkie Collins, Heart and Science:

(transitive, obsolete) To influence, overawe, or subdue by looks or presence.

The fastball caught him looking.

Clem Labine struck Mays out looking at his last at bat.

It's unusual for Mays to strike out looking. He usually takes a cut at it.

(baseball) To look at a pitch as a batter without swinging at it.

To look at a pitch as a batter without swinging at it.

en-verb

look (third-person singular simple present looks, present participle looking, simple past and past participle looked)

looks (present singular third-person)
looking (participle present)
looked (participle past)
looked (past)
look (infinitive)
look (first-person present singular)
looked (first-person past singular)
look (present second-person singular)
lookest (archaic present second-person singular)
looked (past second-person singular)
lookedst (archaic past second-person singular)
looks (present singular third-person)
looketh (archaic present singular third-person)
looked (past singular third-person)
look (plural present)
looked (past plural)
look (present subjunctive)
looked (past subjunctive)
look (imperative present)
looking (participle present)
looked (participle past)

look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards

look as if one has lost a shilling and found sixpence

look like something the cat's dragged in

you don't look at the mantelpiece when you poke the fire

you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire

some Northern Enɡlish dialects, esp. Bolton, Geordie

From Middle English loken, lokien, from Old English lōcian, from Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn. Further origin unknown, no certain cognates outside Germanic. Cognate with Scots luke, luik, leuk (“to look, see”), West Frisian lôkje, loaitsje (“to look”), Dutch loeken (“to look”), German Low German löken. Likely also related to German lugen (“to peek”), Alemannic German luege (“to look”), Yiddish לוגן (lugn). Possibly related to Sanskrit लोक् (lok, “to see, behold”) (from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“light”) in the sense of "illuminating" (cf. related word रुच् (ruc) "to shine, illuminate")).

unk

unknown


look

Look, I'm going to explain what to do, so you have to listen closely.

unknown


look

Let’s have a look under the hood of the car.

The action of looking; an attempt to see.

She got her mother’s looks.

I don’t like the look of the new design.

He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. […] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again her partner was haled off with a frightened look to the royal circle, […]

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:

(often plural) Physical appearance, visual impression.

He gave me a dirty look.

If looks could kill ...

→ Dutch: look

→ French: look

→ Romanian: look

→ Spanish: look

→ Italian: look

unknown