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Glite Dictionary
to look forward

to look forward

825 1.4
Feel happy and excited about something that will happen
  • phrasal verb
  • /lʊk ˈfɔːrwərd/
translation icon : esperar con ilusión
  • I look forward to my day in court.
  • look forward to meeting
  • look forward to seeing
  • look forward to doing

and to look forward to the next day.

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Examples

  • I look forward to that very much, sir.

    Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

  • Well, it's been six months, and I was looking forward to seeing my son.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • OK anyway, guys, look forward to this video if nothing else.

  • So we're looking forward again to the next tour.

  • I look forward to hearing you play.

    The Crow (2024)

  • It's just that it's one of the things I look forward to when we're here.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • You are my honored guests, and I look forward to your company at dinner this evening.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Sharon was excited about this opportunity and actually looked forward to taking the state tests.

    Academic text (2015)

  • I've been looking forward to that.

    Camp Daze (2005)

  • I look forward to celebrating my birthday with my friends.

Synonyms

to expect
vsto look forward
∞ 1.0

To think that something will happen

adds a sense of pleasure and eager hope to that expectation
to look forward to
vsto look forward
867 2.4

To want something to happen and feel excited about it

is identical in sense but usually lacks the extra particle
to await
vsto look forward
522 3.2

To wait for something with hope or excitement

is more about eager pleasure and excitement rather than mere waiting
to look to
vsto look forward
214 3.2

To feel excited about something that will happen

focuses on pleasant eager hope rather than intended planning
to anticipate
vsto look forward
124 3.6

To feel excited or nervous about something that will happen

focuses on pleasure and hopeful excitement rather than worry
to look for
vsto look forward
49 1.0

To feel excited or worried about something that will happen

places the feeling on positive pleasure and eager hope instead

Antonyms

to look back
323 2.6

Think about the past, especially a time you remember

dread
58 2.8

A strong feeling of fear or worry about something that may happen

How Excited

to look forward
825 1.4
to await
522 3.2

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

look + forward

The meaning 'to anticipate something with pleasure' is a metaphorical extension of the spatial sense of 'look' + 'forward' (looking ahead in time), so a learner can partly infer a sense of expecting or looking ahead. However, the specific evaluative nuance of eager pleasure and the required grammatical pattern ('look forward to' + noun/gerund) are not fully predictable from the literal words and cross-linguistic equivalents vary, making it only partially transparent.

Etymology

Look forward The phrasal verb look forward comes from the simple idea of look + forward: literally turning your eyes toward what is ahead. People used that picture of looking into the future to mean 'to expect' or 'to hope' for something with pleasure, so look forward now means 'to expect something with pleasure'.