look up
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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.
- (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 edit
Translations edit
to have better prospects, to improve
to obtain information about something from a text source
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used other than as an idiom
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