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Glite Dictionary
🕰️ To remember past 👀 To turn around
to look back

to look back

323 2.6
Think about the past, especially a time you remember
  • phrasal verb
  • /lʊk bæk/
translation icon : recordar
  • And, you know, sometimes you look back and wish it was simpler.
  • look back on the past
  • look back on history
  • look back in time

That's when you look back on that accomplishment.

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Examples

  • In this article, we look back from today's perspective at those discoveries and their consequences.

    Academic text (2012)

  • In order to move forward, it is important for us to look back at where we have been.

    Academic text (1999)

  • I mean, I think we will look back on this.

    ReasonTV

  • For the very first time, we look back at our own planet.

  • But now I can look back and say, wow, thank you.

  • Now that it was all over, he could even look back on it with pleasure.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Her story told of a young man looking back on his complicated relationship with a difficult mother.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Our descendants may look back at us in the same way that we look back at our ancestors.

    Academic text (2012)

  • It's normal to be afraid at first, but you'll look back at all this and laugh.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • As I look back on my childhood, I realize how much I've grown since then.

Synonyms

to remember
vsto look back
∞ 1.0

To think about something from the past

focuses more on thinking about a wider past period or series of events
to recall
vsto look back
∞ 2.4

Remember something from the past

is broader, involving general reflection on past periods as well as facts
to think back
vsto look back
92 1.9

Remember things that happened in the past

is broader, covering reflection on whole past periods or sets of events
to reminisce
vsto look back
50 5.8

To think or talk about happy times from the past

is broader, covering general remembering of past periods without a pleasant tone
to recollect
vsto look back
20 3.7

To remember something from the past

is less about single memories and more about thinking about past periods
to review
vsto look back
20 2.3

To think about past events to remember or judge them

is mainly reflective rather than focused on formal assessment of past events
to reminisce about
vsto look back
16 5.3

To remember and talk about happy past events

is neutral and can involve any past period, not only pleasant memories
to hark back to
vsto look back
6 7.2

To mention or remember something from an earlier time

is about personally thinking over past periods rather than evoking past features
to cast one's mind back
vsto look back
2 6.3

Think about something that happened in the past to remember it

is often more general and not necessarily an effortful act of recall

Antonyms

to forget
∞ 1.0

Not remember something you should remember

How Reflective

to reflect
265 3.9
to reminisce
50 5.8
to look back
323 2.6
to remember
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

look back infinitive
looked back past
looked back past participle
looking back present participle
looks back third person singular

Morphology

look + back

The sense 'to think about or remember the past' is a straightforward metaphorical extension of 'look' (direct one's attention) + 'back' (toward/at a previous time or behind); a learner who knows these constituent meanings can readily infer retrospection. This motion-to-mental-attention mapping is common across languages and phrasal-verb patterns, so a B1 learner knowing the parts will likely understand the MWE.

Etymology

Look back uses the image of turning to see what is behind you to talk about time. Because look means 'to see' and back means 'behind', the picture of looking behind is used to mean 'to think about or remember the past'.