English
look
see also: Look
Etymology

From Middle English loken, lokien, from Old English lōcian, from Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn.

Pronunciation
  • enPR: lo͝ok, IPA: /lʊk/
  • (some Northern Enɡlish dialects, esp. Bolton, Geordie) IPA: /luːk/ (formerly more widespread)
    • (Liverpool variant) IPA: [luːx]
  • (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /lʉk/
Verb

look (looks, present participle looking; simple past and past participle looked)

  1. To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:look
    1. (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.
    2. (transitive, colloquial) As a transitive verb, often in the imperative; chiefly takes relative clause as direct object.
      Look what you did to him!
      Look who's back!
  2. 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.
    • 2012, Chelsea 6-0 Wolves‎:
      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.
  3. (copulative) To give an appearance of being.
    That painting looks nice.
  4. (intransitive, often, with "for") To search for, to try to find.
  5. To face or present a view.
    The hotel looks over the valleys of the HinduKush.
    • 1769, Benjamin Blayney (editor), King James Version, 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.
  6. 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, [https://books.google.com.au/books?id=PyxMAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA139&dq=%22looking+each+hour+into+death%27s+mouth+to+fall%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTjumR2vLZAhVSOZAKHTDnBAMQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=%22looking%20each%20hour%20into%20death's%20mouth%20to%20fall%22&f=false 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.
  7. (transitive) To express or manifest by a look.
    • c. 1815, Lord Byron, Waterloo:
      Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
  8. (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. […]
  9. (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.
  10. (transitive, archaic or dialectal) To check, to make sure (of something).
    • 1726 October 27, [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.
  11. (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, […].
  12. (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.
  13. (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, [https://books.google.com.au/books?id=zehWAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA464&dq=%22A+spirit+fit+to+start+into+an+empire,+And+look+the+world+to+law.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwjsH0nvPZAhWHqJQKHacPACsQ6AEITTAH#v=onepage&q=%22A%20spirit%20fit%20to%20start%20into%20an%20empire%2C%20And%20look%20the%20world%20to%20law.%22&f=false page 464],
      A Spirit fit to start into an Empire,
      And look the World to Law.
    • 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.
  14. (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.
Conjugation
Conjugation of look

infinitive (to) look
present tense past tense
1st-person singular look looked
2nd-person singular

 look, lookest†

 looked, lookedst†
3rd-person singular

 looks, looketh†

 looked
plural

 look

subjunctive

 look

looked
imperative

 look

—
participles

 looking

 looked

†Archaic or obsolete.

Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Interjection
  1. Pay attention.
    Look, I'm going to explain what to do, so you have to listen closely.
Translations Noun

look (plural looks)

  1. The action of looking; an attempt to see.
    Let’s have a look under the hood of the car.
  2. (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, […]
  3. A facial expression.
    He gave me a dirty look.
    If looks could kill ...
Translations Translations Translations
Look
Etymology 1

From Luke ("a given name").

Proper noun
  1. Surname.
Etymology 2

From Cantonese 陸.

Proper noun
  1. Surname.


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