hard to overlook
1
4.1
- idiom
:
difícil de pasar por alto
- It's hard to miss the schadenfreude in The Economist's editorial stance, but it was even harder to overlook the bluster and denial splashed across the blogosphere in its wake.
Even though I like to keep things suspenseful, it would be hard to overlook or ignore by now that things are looking grim for the Central Powers.
- Even though I like to keep things suspenseful, it would be hard to overlook or ignore by now that things are looking grim for the Central Powers.
Examples
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At the time of its first few seasons, The Sopranos was so wild and audacious, so willing to do just about anything, that it was hard to overlook, even if you didn't much care for it.
Blog text (24) -
But even in my status as a neutral interviewer, it is hard to overlook that as a major blunder in in foreign policy.
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It is a lot harder to overlook three million than 3 percent.
Academic text (2003) -
It's hard to overlook someone who struck out 8 of the 16 batters he faced.
Blog text (4) -
Even though I like to keep things suspenseful, it would be hard to overlook or ignore by now that things are looking grim for the Central Powers.
-
But worries and debates about manpower procurement in the mid-1980s suggest the degree to which the draft seemed hard to overlook.
Academic text (1997) -
For an all-around value—price, quality, safety, performance, size, comfort, handling—it is hard to overlook the Subaru Outback.
Blog text (25) -
The bright colors of the painting made it hard to overlook in the gallery.
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During the meeting, her insightful comments were hard to overlook.
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The loud music from the party next door was hard to overlook while trying to study.
Synonyms
398
1.0
Easy to see or notice
65
3.2
Easy to see, hear, or recognize
1
3.5
Very clear and hard to miss
How Noticeable
1
4.1
1
4.1
12
4.3
∞
1.0
65
3.2
276
6.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'hard' = difficult, 'to' functions as the infinitival marker, and 'overlook' = fail to notice, so together they yield 'difficult to fail to notice' → 'difficult to ignore'. This follows a common adjective + to-infinitive pattern in English (and parallels in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should infer the meaning.
Etymology
Hard to overlook joins hard (difficult) and overlook (to look past); imagine a huge, bright poster or a person speaking loudly that you cannot just look past. So, when something is hard to overlook, it is 'difficult to ignore'.