• Noun:
  • IPA: /ˈaʊtˌlʊk/
• Verb:
  • IPA: /ˌaʊtˈlʊk/

outlook (plural outlooks)

1. A place from which something can be viewed.

   Synonyms: vantage point, overlook

   Perched on the edge of the cliff was a hidden outlook.

   • 1667, Edward Waterhouse (FRS), A Short Narrative of the Late Dreadful Fire in London, London: Richard Thrale et al., p. 97,

     This fetched tears from the innocent eyes, those Casements and out-looks of the tender heart of our Lord Jesus, who beholding the City Ierusalem wept over it,

2. The view from such a place.
3. An attitude or point of view.

   Synonyms: attitude, opinion, perspective, point of view, vantage point, viewpoint

   He has a positive outlook on life.

4. Expectation for the future.

   Synonyms: expectation, prognosis, prospect

   The outlook for temperature rises is worrying.

• German: Aussichtspunkt
• Italian: punto di vista
• Portuguese: perspectiva
• Russian: наблюда́тельный пункт

• French: vue
• German: Aussicht, Ausblick
• Italian: vista
• Russian: вид
• Spanish: vista

• French: point de vue
• German: Einstellung, Ansichten f (only plural)
• Italian: punto di vista
• Portuguese: ponto de vista
• Russian: то́чка зре́ния
• Spanish: punto de vista, visión

• German: Aussicht, Ausblick
• Italian: prospettiva
• Russian: перспектива
• Spanish: perspectivas

outlook (outlooks, present participle outlooking; past and past participle outlooked)

1. (intransitive, archaic, literary) To face#Verb|face or look#Verb|look in an outward direction.

   Synonyms: look out

   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “Queene Elizabeth”, in The Laste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume II, London: Imprinted for Iohn Hunne, OCLC 265432180 ↗, page 1792 ↗, column 1:

     This old man with the scythe#English|ſythe, olde father Tyme they call, / And her#English|hir his daughter Trueth, which holdeth yonder Booke, / Whome he out of his rocke hath brought forth to vs all, / From whence this many yeares ſhe durſt not once out looke.

   • 1610, Gervase Markham, Markhams Maister-peece, or, What Doth a Horse-man Lack? London, Chapter 103 “Certaine speciall Notes to be obserued in buying of a horse,” pp. 204-205,

     [...] marke his colour and his shape, that is to say, a comely well proportioned head, with an outlooking eye, good well raised shoulders, and a thicke large breast [...]

   • 1622, Samuel Purchas, The Kings Towre and Triumphant Arch of London, London, 1623, pp. 32-33,

     A Towre [...] is, or ought to be [...] mounted with bulwarks, towred with turrets, battailed for out-looking artillerie, enclosed with ditches [...]

   • 1895, Henry van Dyke Jr., “Alpenrosen and Goat’s Milk” in Little Rivers, New York: Scribner, p. 150,

     [...] would we look at the rooms? Outlooking on the piazza, with a balcony from which we could observe the Festa of to-morrow.

   • 1932, William Faulkner, chapter 20, in Light in August, [New York, N.Y.]: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, OCLC 644581344 ↗; republished London: Chatto & Windus, 1933, OCLC 154633965 ↗, page 460 ↗:

     The train stopped: the slow aisle, still interrupted with outlooking, then the descent among faces grave, decorous, and judicial: [...]

2. (transitive, archaic) To look at (someone) so long or intently that they look away; to win or prevail over (someone or something).

   Synonyms: outstare, face down, browbeat, overcome

   • circa 1596 William Shakespeare, King John (play), Act V, Scene 2,

     [...] I drew this gallant head of war,

     And cull’d these fiery spirits from the world,

     To outlook conquest and to win renown

     Even in the jaws of danger and of death.

   • circa 1611 George Chapman (translator), The Iliad of Homer, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 11, p. 145,

     There made they stand; there euerie eye, fixt on each other, stroue

     Who should outlooke his mate amaz’d:

   • 1645, Henry Hammond, XXXI Sermons Preached on Several Occasions, London: Richard Royston, 1684, Sermon 8, p. 519,

     [...] the news of the judgment to come, in the Preachers mouth, will be under an heavy suspicion of fraud and cheat, and in fine, pass but for fictions [...] too weak to outlook a brave glittering temptation:

   • 1838, Thomas Miller (poet), Royston Gower, London: W. Nicholson, Chapter 37, p. 329,

     Once or twice he attempted to outlook the Saxon prisoner, but Hereward shrank not beneath his glance [...]

   • 1911, Henry Gilbert, King Arthur’s Knights: The Tales Retold for Boys & Girls, Edinburgh & London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, Chapter 11, p. 299,

     The pain which the king suffered would have softened any ordinary heart; but the murderer was a hard and callous wretch, and his brazen eyes outlooked the king.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To be more attractive than (someone or something).
   • 1731, Mary Delany, letter dated 4 October, 1731, in George Paston (ed.), Mrs. Delany (Mary Granville): A Memoir, 1700-1788, London: Grant Richards, 1900, p. 64,

     Nobody’s equipage outlooked ours except my Lord Lieutenant’s, but in every respect I must say Mrs. Clayton outshines her neighbours [...]

   • 1793, Hester Thrale, letter dated 22 May, 1793, in Oswald G. Knapp (ed.), The Intimate Letters of Hester Piozzi and Penelope Pennington, 1788-1821, London: The Bodley Head, 1914, p. 89,

     [...] Sally quite outlooked her sister by the bye, and was very finely drest.

   • 1862, B. F. Taylor, diary entry dated 5 November, 1862, in E. R. Hutchins (ed.), The War of the Sixties, New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1912, p. 36,

     Ambrose Burnside, handsome, stately, outlooked his chief on horseback as on foot.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To inspect throughly; to select.
   • 1689, Charles Cotton, “The Angler’s Ballad” in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bassett et al., p. 76,

     Away to the Brook,

     All your Tackle out look,

     Here’s a day that is worth a year’s wishing;

     See that all things be right,

     For ’tis a very spight

     To want tools when a man goes a fishing.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To look beyond (something).
   • 1680, John Yalden, Compendium Politicum, or, The Distempers of Government, London: Robert Clavel, p. 54,

     [...] to fit minds to so even a temper, that both should round the same circle, and never out-look the Horizon of their reciprocal Interest, is a work altogether impossible.