under the hood
25
4.7
- idiom
- Specialized
:
bajo el capó
- When we pulled into the driveway, my dad was under the hood of our second car.
- look under the hood
- check under the hood
- peek under the hood
And when people look at writing, most people, they don't look under the hood to see what's going on.
- And when people look at writing, most people, they don't look under the hood to see what's going on.
- They can use it, but if you ask them what's really going on under the hood, they say, well, we have no idea.
- So my big thing is I would actually consider switching to the Microsoft applications if they let us get under the hood as far as the data sets.
- And when I get down and I look under the hood of the brain and I start thinking, why do people act in ways that run contrary to what would be useful to them?
- So I'm not saying that there's nothing going on so-called under the hood, simply that my concern are the larger measures that most people care about.
Examples
-
Before making a decision, it's important to look under the hood and understand how the software works.
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I wouldn't buy a car without checking under the hood.
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Let me look up under the hood.
-
Okay, go look under the hood.
-
Maybe you ought to get under the hood and check it out.
-
Want me to check under the hood for you?
-
You want me to check under the hood?
-
Let's take a look under the hood.
-
Look under the hood.
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Jeff goes to the front of the car, gropes under the hood for the release latch.
Fiction book (1997)
Synonyms
1
6.7
Hidden from users and working behind the scenes
Antonyms
How Internal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'under' (beneath) + 'hood' (a covering/panel), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the literal sense 'beneath the vehicle's hood'. The extended metaphor 'internal workings of a system' is a natural, predictable extension of the physical image and is cross-linguistically common, so the phrase is transparently understandable from its parts.
Etymology
Under the hood comes from cars: when you lift the hood and look under it you see the engine and the hidden parts that make the car work, so the phrase now means 'inside the hidden parts' or 'how something works'.