to look up
357
1.4
- phrasal verb
- /lʊk ʌp/
:
buscar
- She decided to look up the word in the dictionary to understand its meaning.
- look up the word
- look up information
- look up on the internet
I need her to look up his browser history.
- I need her to look up his browser history.
- Clip it and I looked it up and that is true.
- You can look up ayahuasca, you can look up DMT, you can look up LSD.
- And you best believe I'm looking up where the term slack came from.
- If you don't know what that word is, look it up, OK?
- And I started this query and this this work by looking up the keywords black girls.
- First Conan set is fun to look up the my Google set.
Examples
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For easy access and information, users can look up previously processed selections on a user history page.
Academic text (2018) -
When I returned to Temple, I went to the library to look up these Romanian intellectuals.
Academic text (2015) -
We want to look up this code in Core Data.
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You should look up the history of this village.
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You can just go on your computer and look it up right there.
Academic text (2012) -
I'll make sure to look up that life insurance policy he never got around to getting.
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For example, one student said: "7 tend to only look up information when it's too late."
Academic text (2015) -
If you don't know what that word is, look it up, OK?
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The online catalog is used only to look up specific titles.
Academic text (2013) -
Finally, the instructor modeled how to use the dictionary to look up the meaning of the science word.
Academic text (2015)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To try to find something or someone by looking carefully
573
2.8
Examine something carefully to find out more
292
3.5
Ask a person or book for advice before deciding
122
3.0
Look for and find a person or thing, often with effort
8
3.0
To look for information or a solution to a problem
1
1.0
Look in a book or on a website to find a word's meaning and spelling
Antonyms
How Thorough
Surface Forms
Morphology
look + up
The meaning 'to try to find information' is directly derivable from combining 'look' (to search) with the particle 'up', where 'up' adds a directional/completive sense common in English phrasal verbs indicating consulting or checking a source. Even though 'up' lacks a dictionary entry in the input, its typical particle meaning is familiar to B1 learners and the compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, so learners who know both constituents will likely infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Look up comes from a simple image: when people needed facts they would open a book or lift their eyes to find them. People would look a word up in a dictionary, so it now means 'to try to find information'.