to squint at
13
5.3
- phrasal verb
- /skwɪnt æt/
:
entrecerrar los ojos
- She squinted at the small print on the menu, trying to read it clearly.
- squint at the screen
- squint at the computer
- squint at the sun
Examples
-
"You already said that," the boy told him, and squinted at him in silence again.
Fiction book (1990) -
Well, yes and no, he said, squinting at Ray, taking his measure.
Academic text (2007) -
Well, that K, if you squint at it, not very much actually.
-
"What are you talking about?" He squinted at his cards, the setting sun shining directly into his eyes.
Fiction book (1990) -
I stood on a mountain and squinted at other mountains, white ridge after white ridge.
Fiction book (1990) -
Burns asked, but his driver only squinted at him and shook his head slightly.
Fiction book (1992) -
Pulitzer rises, goes to the window to squint at the children below.
Fiction book (1992) -
Jamie suddenly appeared behind me, closely followed by Jared, who squinted at the mob scene below.
Fiction book (1992) -
Later that night, Tom Luce rubs his eyes, fumbles for the phone, and squints at the digital clock.
Fiction book (1992) -
The young man squinted at the reddish spikes and shook his head.
Fiction book (1990)
How Narrow
Surface Forms
Morphology
squint + at
The verb 'squint' already denotes half-closing the eyelids to see, and the preposition 'at' simply marks the target of the action; together they directly yield 'to look at something with partly closed eyes'. This verb+preposition composition is a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Squint at comes from the real action of partly closing your eyes and making a small slit to see better in bright light or when something is hard to see. That's why it means 'to look with partly closed eyes'.