look

look as if butter wouldn’t melt in one’s

mouth to appear to be cold and unfeel-

ing (despite any information to the con-

trary). Sally looks as if butter wouldn’t

melt in her mouth. She can be so cruel.

What a sour face. He looks as if butter

wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

look at someone cross-eyed to do some-

thing slightly provocative. (Informal.)

Bob is very excitable. He’d lose his temper

if anyone so much as looked at him cross-

eyed. T Don’t even look cross-eyed at the

boss this morning unless you want trouble.

look daggers at someone to give someone

a dirty look. (Compare this with look at

someone cross-eyed.) Tom must have

been mad at Ann from the way he was

looking daggers at her. Don’t you dare

look daggers at me! Don’t even look cross-

eyed at me!

look down one’s nose at someone or some-

thing Go to look down on someone or some-

thing.

look down on someone or something and

look down one’s nose at someone or some-

thing to regard someone or something

with contempt or displeasure. (Also lit-

eral.) I think that John liked Mary, al-

though he did seem to look down on her.

Don’t look down your nose at my car

just because it’s rusty and noisy.

look for trouble Go to ask for trouble.

look good on paper seems fine in theory,

but not perhaps in practice; appears to be

a good plan. The plan looks good on pa-

per, but it may not work. This looks good

on paper. Let’s hope it works in the real

world.

look high and low (for someone or something)

Go to hunt high and low (for someone or

something).

look in (on someone or something) and check

in (on someone or something) to see to the

welfare of someone or something; to visit

someone or something. I’ll stop by your

house and look in on things while you’re on

vacation. Yes, just look in and make sure

nothing is wrong. I checked in on John

yesterday. He’s almost over his illness.

He was glad I checked in.

look into something and check into some-

thing; see into something to investigate

something. I’ll have to look into that

matter.  The police checked into her

story. Don’t worry about your problem.

I’ll see into it.

look like a million dollars to look very

good. Oh, Sally, you look like a million

dollars. Your new hairdo looks like a

million dollars.

look like death warmed over to look

quite ill; to look as pale as a dead person.

Poor Tom had quite a shock. He looks

like death warmed over. After her long

ordeal with chemotherapy, she looked like

death warmed over.

look like something to give the appearance

of predicting (something). The sky

looks like rain. No, it looks like snow.

Oh, oh. This looks like trouble. Let’s go.

look like the cat that swallowed the ca-

nary to appear as if one had just had a

great success. After the meeting John

looked like the cat that swallowed the ca-

nary. I knew he must have been a success.

What happened? You look like the cat

that swallowed the canary.

look on someone as something to view or

think of someone as something. I look

on you as a very thoughtful person.

Mary looked on Jane as a good friend.

look out Go to watch out.

look out for someone or something Go to

watch out for someone or something.

look someone in the eye Go to look some-

one in the face.

look someone in the face and look some-

one in the eye; stare someone in the face

to face someone directly. (Facing some-

one this way should assure sincerity.)

I don’t believe you. Look me in the eye and

say that. She looked him in the face and

said she never wanted to see him again.

I dare you to stare him in the face and say

that!

look someone or something over to examine

someone or something carefully. She

looked him over and decided to hire him.

T Please look over this report.

look someone or something up and hunt some-

one or something up to search for and find

someone or something. I don’t know

where the hammer is. I’ll have to hunt it

up. Ann looked the word up in the dic-

tionary. T Would you please look up John?

I need to talk to him.

look the other way to ignore (something)

on purpose. (Also literal.) John could

have prevented the problem, but he looked

the other way. By looking the other way,

he actually made the problem worse.

look to someone or something (for something) to

expect someone or something to supply

something. Children look to their par-

ents for help. Tom looked to the bank for

a loan. Most people who need to bor-

row money look to a bank.

look under the hood to examine the en-

gine of a car; to check the oil and water

associated with the engine of a car. I

finished putting gas in. I need to look un-

der the hood. Do you want me to look

under the hood, sir?

look up to someone to view someone with

respect and admiration. Bill really looks

up to his father. Everyone in the class

looked up to the teacher.

loom large (on the horizon) to be of great

importance, especially when referring to

a possible problem, danger, or threat.

(Also literal. A cliché.) The exams were

looming large on the horizon. Eviction

was looming large when the students could

not pay their rent.

lord it over someone to dominate someone;

to direct and control someone. Mr.

Smith seems to lord it over his wife. The

boss lords it over everyone in the office.

lose face to lose status; to become less re-

spectable. John is more afraid of losing

face than losing money. Things will go

better if you can explain to him where he

was wrong, without making him lose face.

lose ground to fall behind; to fall back.

She was recovering nicely yesterday, but she

lost ground last night.  We are losing

ground in our fight against mosquitoes.

lose heart to lose one’s courage or confi-

dence. Now, don’t lose heart. Keep try-

ing. What a disappointment! It’s enough

to make one lose heart.

lose one’s cool and blow one’s cool to lose

one’s temper; to lose one’s nerve. (Slang.)

Wow, he really lost his cool! What a tan-

trum! Whatever you do, don’t blow your

cool.

lose oneself (in something) to become deeply

involved in something (so that every-

thing else is forgotten). Jane has a ten-

dency to lose herself in her work. I of-

ten lose myself in thought. Excuse me,

I lost myself for a moment.

lose one’s head (over someone or something)

to become confused or “crazy” about

someone or something. (Literal in refer-

ence to execution by decapitation. Refers

especially to emotional attachments.)

Don’t lose your head over John. He isn’t

worth it. I’m sorry. I got upset and lost

my head.

lose one’s marbles and lose one’s mind to

go crazy; to go out of one’s mind. (The

first phrase is slang and can be literal. See

also not have all one’s marbles.) What

a silly thing to say! Have you lost your

marbles? I can’t seem to remember any-

thing. I think I’m losing my mind.

lose one’s mind Go to lose one’s marbles.

lose one’s reason to lose one’s power of rea-

soning, possibly in anger. I was so con-

fused that I almost lost my reason. Bob

seems to have lost his reason when he

struck John.

lose one’s shirt to lose all of one’s assets (in-

cluding one’s shirt). (Also literal. Slang.)

I almost lost my shirt on that deal. I

have to invest more wisely. No, I can’t

loan you $200. I just lost my shirt at the

racetrack.

lose one’s temper to become angry.

Please don’t lose your temper. It’s not good

for you. I’m sorry that I lost my temper.

lose one’s touch (with someone or something)

to lose one’s ability to handle someone or

something. I seem to have lost my touch

with my children. They won’t mind me

anymore. We’ve both lost our touch as

far as managing people goes. Tom said

that he had lost his touch with the stock

market.

lose one’s train of thought to forget what

one was talking or thinking about. (See

also train of thought.) Excuse me, I lost

my train of thought. What was I talking

about? You made the speaker lose her

train of thought.

lose out to someone or something to lose a

competition to someone or something.

Our team lost out to the other team. Bill

lost out to Sally in the contest.

lose sleep (over someone or something) to

worry about someone or something. (Lit-

eral when worry keeps one awake.) I

keep losing sleep over my son, who is in the

army. Do you lose sleep over your in-

vestments? No, I don’t lose sleep, and I

never worry.

lose touch (with someone or something) to

lose contact with someone or something.

(Compare this with keep in touch (with

someone).) Poor Sally has lost touch with

reality. I’ve lost touch with all my rela-

tives. Jane didn’t mean to lose touch, but

she did.

lose track (of someone or something) to forget

where someone or something is; to lose

or misplace someone or something.

I’ve lost track of the time. The mother

lost track of her child and started calling

When I get tired, I tend to lose

track.

lost-and-found an office or department

that handles items that someone has lost

that have been found by someone else.

The lost-and-found office had an enor-

mous collection of umbrellas and four sets

of false teeth! I found a book on the seat

of the bus. I turned it in to the driver, who

gave it to the lost-and-found office.

lost and gone forever lost; permanently

lost. My poor doggy is lost and gone for-

ever. My money fell out of my pocket,

and I am sure that it is lost and gone

forever.

lost on someone having no effect on some-

one; wasted on someone. (Informal.)

The joke was lost on Jean. She didn’t un-

derstand it. The humor of the situation

a lot of someone or something and lots of peo-

ple or things a large number of people or

things; much of something. I got a lot

of presents for my birthday. I ate lots of

cookies after dinner.

lots of people or things Go to a lot of someone

or something.

loud and clear clear and distinctly. (Orig-

inally said of radio reception that is heard

clearly and distinctly.) TOM: If I’ve

told you once, I’ve told you a thousand

times: Stop it! Do you hear me? BILL: Yes,

loud and clear.  I hear you loud and

clear.

louse something up to mess up or ruin some-

thing. (Slang.) I’ve worked hard on this.

Please don’t louse it up. T You’ve loused up

all my plans.

lousy with something with something in

abundance. (Slang.) This place is lousy

with cops. Our picnic table was lousy

with ants.

love at first sight love established when

two people first see one another. Bill

was standing at the door when Ann opened

it. It was love at first sight. It was love

at first sight when they met, but it didn’t

last long.

lovely weather for ducks rainy weather.

BOB: Not very nice out today, is it?

BILL: It’s lovely weather for ducks.

don’t like this weather, but it’s lovely

weather for ducks.

lower one’s voice to speak more softly.

Please lower your voice, or you’ll disturb

the people who are working. He would-

n’t lower his voice, so everyone heard what

he said.

lower the boom on someone to scold or

punish someone severely; to crack down

on someone; to throw the book at some-

one. (Also literal. Informal.) If Bob

won’t behave better, I’ll have to lower the

boom on him. The teacher lowered the

boom on the whole class for misbehaving.

luck out to get lucky (about something).

(Slang.) I won $100 in the lottery. I

really lucked out. Bob lucked out when

he got an easy teacher for geometry.

[luck runs out] Go to one’s luck runs out.

the lull before the storm and the calm

before the storm a quiet period just be-

fore a period of great activity or excite-

ment. (Literal in reference to weather.)

It was very quiet in the cafeteria just be-

fore the students came in for lunch. It was

the lull before the storm. In the brief

calm before the storm, the clerks prepared

themselves for the doors to open and bring

in thousands of shoppers.

lull someone into a false sense of security

to lead someone into believing that all is

well before attacking or doing someone

bad. We lulled the enemy into a false

sense of security by pretending to retreat.

Then we launched an attack. The boss

lulled us into a false sense of security by

saying that our jobs were safe and then let

half the staff go.

lull someone to sleep to cause someone to

fall asleep. The mother lulled her baby

to sleep. The boring professor lulled the

students to sleep.

the lunatic fringe the more extreme mem-

bers of a group. Most of the members

of that religious sect are quite reasonable,

but Lisa belongs to the lunatic fringe.

Many people try to avoid eating a lot of fat,

but Mary is part of the lunatic fringe and

will hardly eat anything.