to look
- verb
- /lʊk/
- I've been looking for the creature in the wrong place, in the records of all known living things in the kingdom.
- look around
- begin looking
- look for people
Look for things Look close to you down.
- Look for things Look close to you down.
Examples
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Once the archaeologists knew what they were looking for, finding the walls became easy.
Academic text (2011) -
Students will ask more questions looking for information online than they will face to face.
Academic text (2013) -
Most people do come here looking for something.
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I was lost in some dark forest, looking for him.
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Because the guy you were looking for was too close.
-
We were in the meal hall looking for the phone.
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We're looking for a place, maybe in the suburbs.
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But we are still floundering as we look for a new school library model.
Academic text (2011) -
When we put this issue together, we were looking for an uplifting story from Haiti.
Academic text (2011) -
She is looking for her lost keys in the living room.
Synonyms
To try to find something or someone
To try to find something or someone by looking carefully
Try to find or get something you want
To look carefully for something or someone
Look for and find a person or thing, often with effort
To look around or think hard to find something you need
To search everywhere for something that is lost
Idioms
- Informal
A humorous remark to greet someone who arrives unexpectedly or looking messy
To pay attention to something unimportant instead of the main task
Phrasal Verbs
Act in a careful, nervous way because you fear being watched or followed
Compounds
A person who is very similar in appearance to another person, often a famous person
- Offensive
A messy, not fashionable style often seen on people who like computers or games
How Thorough
Surface Forms
Etymology
Look comes from the old English lócian meaning 'to see', and the phrase 'look for' grew from this idea into 'search with your eyes'. So to look for something is to try to find it by looking.