to look the part
19
4.1
- phrasal verb
:
dar buena imagen
- You live in Boulder now, and you have to look the part.
- certainly look the part
- hardly look the part
- just look the part
And Doug, I look the part, don't I get on the wide angle?
- And Doug, I look the part, don't I get on the wide angle?
- So I mean, it really looked the part, this very spiritual place.
- What they're doing is making the air look the part.
- And I need to look the part and I can't look like I'm on safari.
- And so I felt very compelled to dress the part right, to look the part.
- They're really, it's just, it's just it's not very heavy so I can wield it like I'm thrall like I'm really strong and it looks the part.
- None of us know who's going to get it or why they got it, unless it's, you know, often times you get a job because you look the part.
- And so, and then add on to it, if somebody looks the part right, then people are even more likely to buy into it, right?
- I was a millionaire, self-made and I looked the part, felt the part and I thought I could walk on water.
- Most people want to look the part of an entrepreneur that came up with the next Supreme or Adidas brand or the next Uber or Facebook.
Examples
-
With his wild mane of hair, Zamfirescu certainly looks the part of a mad scientist.
Blog text (25) -
Matt, unlike his tired teacher, fully looks the part of an artist.
Fiction book (1993) -
All you gotta do is look the part.
-
Well, you certainly look the part.
-
Yeah, you look the part.
-
As a pair, they certainly looked the part.
Fiction book (2001) -
To do this properly, you need to at least look the part.
Fiction book (2000) -
Not only do Miss America contestants have the drive to succeed, they also look the part.
Blog text (18) -
A rancher by trade, Travis looked the part in his dark jeans and cowboy boots.
Fiction book (1996) -
Dressed in a smart suit and polished shoes, he definitely looked the part for the corporate meeting.
Synonyms
11
5.7
To be well dressed and neat
1
2.4
Wear clothes that suit the event or weather
Antonyms
How Appropriate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'look' (appearance) plus 'the part' (the role or role-appropriate behaviour), so it literally means to have the appearance of the role. This compositional pattern is common in English and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Look the part comes from the theater, where an actor needed to look like their part by wearing the right clothes and hair for a 'role'. So today it means 'to have an appearance right for a role or job'.