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look definition

Overview

This page has 34 definitions of look with English translations in 8 languages. Look is a verb, interjection and noun. Examples of how to use look in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: löök and Look

English look definition

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)

  1. To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes.
    Synonyms: see 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.
      • 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.
    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!
  3. 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.‎[1], 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[2]:
      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[3]:
      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.
  4. (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 […].
  5. (intransitive, often with "for") To search for, to try to find.
  6. 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:
  7. To expect or anticipate.
    I look to each hour for my lover’s arrival.
  8. (transitive) To express or manifest by a look.
    • c. 1815, Lord Byron, Waterloo:
      Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
  9. (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. […]
  10. (dated, sometimes figurative) To show oneself in looking.
    Look out of the window [i.e. lean out] while I speak to you.
  11. (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. […], 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.
  12. (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, […].
  13. (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.
  14. (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.
    • 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.
  16. (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

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.

Derived terms

phrasal verbs derived from look (verb)
other terms derived from look (verb)

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Interjection

look

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

Synonyms

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 ...

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ Monier Williams (1899), “look”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 906.
  3. ^ “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.

Anagrams

Chinese look definition

Etymology

From English look.

Pronunciation

Noun

look

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) look; physical appearance; visual impression; style; outfit

References

Dutch look definition

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

Noun

look n or m (plural loken, diminutive lookje n)

  1. Any plant of the genus Allium
Derived terms
  • lookachtig
  • lookallergie
  • lookbed
  • lookgeur
  • looksaus
  • looksmaak
  • looksoep
  • lookstank
  • lookworst

-plant species:

  • bieslook (“chives”)
  • berglook (“keeled garlic”)
  • daslook (“bear leek”)
  • eslook (“shallot”)
  • knoflook (“garlic”)
  • kraailook (“crow garlic”)
  • lookprei
  • look-zonder-look
  • moeslook (“field garlic”)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

Verb

look

  1. singular past indicative of luiken

Etymology 3

Borrowed from English look.

Pronunciation

Noun

look m (plural looks)

  1. A look, (clothing) style, appearance.
Derived terms
  • horrorlook

Etymology 4

Related to luiken, cognate with English lock.

Noun

look m (plural loken, diminutive )

  1. A gap, space between barrels or between the strings in rope.
  2. A section, division (archaic).

Anagrams

French look definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English look.

Pronunciation

Noun

look m (plural looks)

  1. 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.

Derived terms

Portuguese look definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English look.

Pronunciation

 

Noun

look m (plural looks)

  1. (informal) outfit; look, style (a set of clothing with accessories, usually special clothes)
    Synonym: visual

Romanian look definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English look.

Noun

look n (plural lookuri)

  1. look

Declension

Declension of look
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) look lookul (niște) lookuri lookurile
genitive/dative (unui) look lookului (unor) lookuri lookurilor
vocative lookule lookurilor

Spanish look definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English look.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈluk/ [ˈluk]
  • Rhymes: -uk

Noun

look m (plural looks)

  1. (informal) a look; style, appearance

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

Tagalog look definition

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *luquk (“bay”). Compare Ilocano luek, Kapampangan lauk, Cebuano luok, Tausug luuk, and Malay teluk.

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: lo‧ok
  • IPA(key): /loˈʔok/, [loˈʔok]

Noun

loók (Baybayin spelling ᜎᜓᜂᜃ᜔)

  1. (geography) bay (body of water)
    Synonym: baiya
    Look ng Maynila
    Manila Bay
  2. middle part of a bay

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

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