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Glite Dictionary
🔍 To search 🎉 To expect
to look for

to look for

∞ 1.0
To try to find something or someone
  • phrasal verb
  • /lʊk fɔr/
translation icon : buscar
  • She decided to look for her lost keys under the couch.
  • look for ways
  • look for alternatives
  • look for themes

the people who are looking for you can't find you.

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Examples

  • Students will ask more questions looking for information online than they will face to face.

    Academic text (2013)

  • And June spent three weeks looking for Abby with no luck.

    The Drew Barrymore Show

  • But you still need to look for your story, right?

  • And what they do is look for this stuff all day long.

  • The police come looking for him and he leaves town.

  • You see what you look for, so look for the good.

    Tom Bilyeu

  • Most people do come here looking for something.

    I'm Not Gay : A Musical (2023)

  • I was lost in some dark forest, looking for him.

    He's Watching (2022)

  • Like many companies, our company was constantly looking for ways to reduce costs.

    Academic text (2012)

  • As time passed, however, they started looking for a dedicated space in which to socialize.

    Academic text (2011)

Synonyms

to look
vsto look for
∞ 1.0

To try to find someone or something

is identical in meaning but is the simple everyday phrasing
to search
vsto look for
∞ 1.0

To try to find something or someone by looking carefully

is the general attempt to find without stressing careful method
to seek
vsto look for
∞ 1.0

Try to find or get something you want

is narrower, meaning only trying to find rather than also achieving
to hunt
vsto look for
190 1.2

To look carefully for something or someone

is more general and may not imply the same careful intensity
to seek out
vsto look for
122 3.0

Look for and find a person or thing, often with effort

is broader and less focused on a specific target or intense effort
to quest for
vsto look for
64 5.4

To search for something that is hard to find

is a common attempt to find not the long difficult pursuit implied here
to look high and low
vsto look for
  • Informal
1 3.9

To search everywhere for something that is lost

is the normal trying to find not necessarily done in an exhaustive way

How Hard

to scour
57 5.1
to hunt
190 1.2
to search
∞ 1.0
to look for
∞ 1.0
to check
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

look + for

The verb 'look' (to search) combined with the preposition 'for' normally yields a literal 'search for' meaning that is transparently compositional; the provided sense 'to anticipate/be excited or anxious about something' is not derivable from the constituents. A B1 learner who knows 'look' and 'for' would not reliably infer 'anticipate' from this combination, and cross-linguistically anticipation is usually expressed with different verbs, so the meaning here is non-compositional.

Etymology

Look for comes from a simple picture: you look with your eyes when you want something and the word for shows what you are aiming at. That's why it means 'to try to find' someone or something.