to not look a day over
5
8.2
- phrasal verb
:
no parecer más de
- Although I may not look a day over 25, I have learned quite a few lessons in my 30 years.
- don't look a day over twenty
- don't look a day over thirty
- don't look a day over forty
Examples
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You don't look a day over thirty-nine.
Fiction book (2002) -
And I swear to you on my life, you don't look a day over 65.
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Well, you don't look a day over 25.
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Of course, you don't look a day over 12.
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Let me be the first to say you don't look a day over 10.
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I mean, when they went in, the fellow in the middle didn't look a day over 17.
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You don't look a day over 40.
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- Well, you don't look a day over 22.
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Gee, you don't look a day over twenty!
Fiction book (1995) -
You don't look a day over 30, and I'm amazed at how youthful you seem.
Antonyms
How Young
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components give partial clues: 'not' (negation) + 'look' (appear) and 'over' (more than) with 'a day' signaling a tiny amount, so a reader can piece together that the phrase means 'does not appear even a day older than X' (i.e. appears no older than X). However, the specific quantified idiom 'a day over' functioning to mark age is a fixed, somewhat idiomatic construction that may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase not look a day over creates a simple picture: imagine someone's age not moving even one day on the calendar, so they seem frozen at that age. So, it means 'to appear younger than' the age given.