look up
See also: lookup and look-up
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
look up (third-person singular simple present looks up, present participle looking up, simple past and past participle looked up)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, up.
- We stayed up late to look up at the stars.
- (intransitive, idiomatic) To have better prospects.
- Synonyms: get better, improve; see also Thesaurus:improve
- Things started looking up after Jim moved back in with his parents.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To obtain, or seek to obtain, information about something.
- 2014 July 16, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, Jul 16, 2014:
- "Why do you know about transgender stuff? Did you look it up because of me?" "Oh no. I find wanting to change forms totally normal. It never would've occurred to me."
- To obtain information about something from a reference book.
- Synonym: consult
- I didn't know what a mitochondrion was until I looked it up in a dictionary.
- To enter a query into a database or search engine.
- Synonym: search
- If you look up a bunch of random characters, there will probably be no results.
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- (transitive, idiomatic) To reconnect or meet with someone that one used to know.
- Synonym: track down
- 1914, Rupert Hughes, Clipped Wings:
- Look me up next time you’re in town—if you can bring me some new ideas.
Related terms
- look someone up and down
- look up to
- lookup
Translations
to have better prospects, to improve
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to obtain information about something from a text source
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used other than as an idiom
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Anagrams
- uplook