look.
To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes.
Meaning & usage
To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes. As an intransitive verb, often with “at”.
They kept looking at me.
Don’t look in the closet.
To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes. 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!
To appear, to seem.
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 friendly.
To give an appearance of being.
What a fright you looked in that hideous outfit.
That painting looks nice.
To search for, to try to find.
To face or present a view.
The hotel looks over the valleys of the Hindu Kush.
To expect or anticipate.
I look to each hour for my lover’s arrival.
To express or manifest by a look.
To make sure of, to see to.
To show oneself in looking; to peep out.
To check, to make sure (of something).
To look at; to turn the eyes toward.
To seek; to search for.
To influence, overawe, or subdue by looks or presence.
to look down opposition
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.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn Old English lōcian Middle English loken English look 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).
Pay attention.
Look, I'm going to explain what to do, so you have to listen closely.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn Old English lōcian Middle English loken English look 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).
The action of looking; an attempt to see.
Let’s have a look under the hood of the car.
Physical appearance, visual impression.
She got her mother’s looks.
I don’t like the look of the new design.
A facial expression.
He gave me a dirty look.
If looks could kill ...
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn Old English lōcian Middle English loken English look 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).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.