look
English
Etymology
From Middle English loken, lokien, from Old English lōcian, from Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn. Further origin unknown, no certain cognates outside Germanic.[1] The English word, however, is cognate with Scots luke, luik, leuk (“to look, see”), West Frisian lôkje, loaitsje (“to look”), Dutch loeken (“to look”), German Low German löken, Alemannic German luege (“to look”), German lugen (“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")).[2]
Pronunciation
Verb
look (third-person singular simple present looks, present participle looking, simple past and past participle looked)
- To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:look
- (intransitive) As an intransitive verb, often with "at".
- Troponyms: glance; see also Thesaurus:stare
- They kept looking at me.
- Don’t look in the closet.
- 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:
- 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.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →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.
- 1968, Ray Thomas (lyrics and music), “Legend of a Mind”, in In Search of the Lost Chord, performed by The Moody Blues:
- Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.
- (transitive, colloquial) As a transitive verb, often in the imperative; chiefly takes relative clause as direct object.
- 1972, The Godfather:
- Look how they massacred my boy.
- Look what you did to him!
- Look who's back!
- To appear, to seem.
- It looks as if it’s going to rain soon.
- Our new boss looks to be a lot more friendly.
- c. 1701-03, Joseph Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c., Dedication:
- 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.
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →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.
- (copulative) To give an appearance of being.
- That painting looks nice.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, chapter 6, Monk Samson:
- 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 […].
- (intransitive, often with "for") To search for, to try to find.
- To face or present a view.
- 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:
- 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:
- 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.
- To expect or anticipate.
- 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,
- 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108:
- "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,
- 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]:
- Gloster, what ere we like,thou art Protector,
And lookest to command the Prince and Realme.
- (transitive) To express or manifest by a look.
- c. 1815, Lord Byron, Waterloo:
- Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
- (transitive, often with "to") To make sure of, to see to.
- 1898, Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, The Odyssey:
- "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. […]
- (dated, sometimes figurative) To show oneself in looking.
- Look out of the window [i.e. lean out] while I speak to you.
- 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]:
- I have […] more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the overleather.
- (transitive, archaic or dialectal) To check, to make sure (of something).
- 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:
- 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.
- (transitive, obsolete) To look at; to turn the eyes toward.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- 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, […].
- (transitive, obsolete) To seek; to search for.
- 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.
- Looking my love, I go from place to place,
- c. 1552–1599, Edmund Spenser, unidentified sonnet,
- (transitive, obsolete) To influence, overawe, or subdue by looks or presence.
- 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.
- A Spirit fit to start into an Empire,
- 1882, Wilkie Collins, Heart and Science:
- Ovid might have evaded her entreaties by means of an excuse. But her eyes were irresistible: they looked him into submission in an instant.
- (baseball) To look at a pitch as a batter without swinging at it.
- 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.
Usage notes
Though the use of the pronunciation /luːk/ is now restricted to northern English dialects, it was formerly more widespread. For example, it is mentioned without comment in Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary.[3]
Conjugation
Derived terms
phrasal verbs derived from look (verb)
other terms derived from look (verb)
- a cat can look at a king
- a cat may look at a king
- as soon as look at someone
- belook
- does someone look like
- don't look a gift horse in the mouth
- don't look at me
- don't look now
- forelook
- look a fright
- look alike
- lookalike, look-alike
- look alive
- 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-at-me
- look at oneself in the mirror
- look at you
- look before one leaps
- look before you leap
- look beyond
- look beyond the end of one's nose
- look beyond the tip of one's nose
- look daggers
- look down one's nose
- lookee
- looker
- look for a dog to kick
- look for number one
- look for trouble
- look here
- look in the face
- lookit
- look like
- look like a bomb has hit it
- look like one swallowed a bug
- look like something the cat brought in
- look like something the cat dragged in
- look like something the cat's dragged in
- look like who did it and ran
- look lively
- look off
- look on as
- look one's age
- look one's best
- look oneself
- look on the black side
- look on the bright side
- look on the bright side of it
- look on the dark side
- look on the dark side of it
- look on the gloomy side
- look on the positive side
- lookout, look-out
- look-out book
- look out for number one
- look out for Number One
- look over one's shoulder
- look past the end of one's nose
- look past the tip of one's nose
- look-see
- look sharp
- look shy
- look snappy
- look someone in the eye
- look the other way
- look the part
- look through rose-colored glasses
- look through rose-tinted glasses
- look under rocks
- look up and down
- look what the cat dragged in
- look what the cat drug in
- look what the cat's brought in
- look what the cat's dragged in
- look who's talking
- look who the cat dragged in
- look you
- made you look
- mislook
- never look a gift horse in the mouth
- no-look
- not look a day over
- not much to look at
- onlooker
- outlook
- outward-looking
- overlook
- relook
- underlook
- 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
Translations
to try to see
|
to appear, to seem
|
give an appearance of being
to search — see also look for
|
to face
|
to expect
baseball: to look at a pitch without swinging
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Interjection
look
- Pay attention.
- Look, I'm going to explain what to do, so you have to listen closely.
Translations
interjection to attract attention
|
Noun
look (plural looks)
- The action of looking; an attempt to see.
- Let’s have a look under the hood of the car.
- (often plural) Physical appearance, visual impression.
- She got her mother’s looks.
- I don’t like the look of the new design.
- 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:
- 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, […]
- A facial expression.
- He gave me a dirty look.
- If looks could kill ...
Derived terms
Translations
action of looking
|
physical appearance
|
facial expression
|
See also
References
- Philippa, Marlies, Debrabandere, Frans, Quak, Arend, Schoonheim, Tanneke, van der Sijs, Nicoline (2003–2009) “look”, in Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands (in Dutch), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press
- Monier Williams (1899) “look”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 906.
- “Look” in John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary […] , London: Sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinſon, Paternoſter Row; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791, →OCLC, page 329, column 2.
Chinese
Pronunciation
References
Dutch
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch look, from Old Dutch *lōk, from Proto-Germanic *laukaz. Compare Low German look, Look, German Lauch, English leek, Danish løg, Swedish lök. More at leek.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /loːk/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: look
- Rhymes: -oːk
- Homophone: Look
Derived terms
species
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /loːk/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: look
- Rhymes: -oːk
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /luk/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: look
- Rhymes: -uk
Derived terms
- horrorlook
Noun
look m (plural loken, diminutive [please provide])
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /luk/
Audio (file)
Noun
look m (plural looks)
- a style; appearance; look
- Je trouve que son nouveau look ne lui va pas du tout. ― I think his new look doesn't suit him at all.
Portuguese
Romanian
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈluk/ [ˈluk]
- Rhymes: -uk
Usage notes
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Further reading
- “look”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Tagalog
Alternative forms
- looc — obsolete, Spanish-based orthography
- luok — nonstandard
Etymology
From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *luquk (“bay”). Compare Ilocano luek, Kapampangan lauk, Cebuano luok, Tausug luuk, and Malay teluk.
Pronunciation
- (Standard Tagalog) IPA(key): /loˈʔok/ [loˈʔok]
- Rhymes: -ok
- Syllabification: lo‧ok
Noun
loók (Baybayin spelling ᜎᜓᜂᜃ᜔)
Further reading
- “look”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
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