Word.ws English Dictionary

look to

look to verb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, to.

Verb

look to (third-person singular simple present looks to, present participle looking to, simple past and past participle looked to)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, to.
  2. (idiomatic) To seek inspiration or advice or reward from someone.
    • Whenever I'm upset, I look to Mary to cheer me up.
    • But the lout looked only to his market, and was not easily repulsed. ¶ "He's there, I tell you," he persisted. "And for threepence I'll get you to see him. Come on, your honour! It's many a Westminster election I've seen, and beer running, from Mr. Fox,[…]when maybe it's your honour's going to...1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01
    Synonyms:
    run to, turn to
  3. (idiomatic) To take care of.
    • He thoroughly cleaned his silver watch-chain with whiting, put new lacing straps to his boots, looked to the brass eyelet-holes, went to the inmost heart of the plantation for a new walking-stick, and trimmed it vigorously on his way back;[…].1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter 4, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC
  4. (idiomatic) To intend to; to prepare to; to seem likely to.
    • I think that cat was looking to bite me if I hadn't run away!
    • A storm looks to be on the way.

look to meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

look to in Tamil

நம்பி இரு

look to in Malayalam

think about, consider, turn one's thoughts to
നോക്കുക, ആലോചിക്കുക, ചിന്തിക്കുക, പരിചിന്തിക്കുക, ആലോചന തിരിച്ചുവിടുക, ശ്രദ്ധകേന്ദീകരിക്കുക
turn to, resort to, have recourse to
തിരിയുക, ആശ്രയിക്കുക, ആലംബിക്കുക, അഭയം തേടുക, അണ്ടുക, ആശ്രയമാക്കുക

look to in Kannada

ನೋಡು, ಗಮನಕೊಡು

Synonyms of look to

Forms of look to

third-person singular presentlooks to
present participlelooking to
past participlelooked to
pastlooked to

Questions about look to

What does look to mean?
Look to means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, to.
What is look to in Tamil?
Look to in Tamil is நம்பி இரு. See Look to meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is look to?
Look to is a verb.
What is the past tense of look to?
The past tense of look to is looked to.

Words near look to in the dictionary

  1. look the part
  2. look through
  3. look through one's fingers
  4. look through rose-colored glasses
  5. look through rose-tinted glasses
  6. look to
  7. look under rocks
  8. look up
  9. look up and down
  10. look up to
  11. look upon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: look to (page history and authors); look to (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); look to (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); look to (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-look to.ogg.

Cite this entry: “look to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/look_to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.