Word.ws English Dictionary

look up and down

look up and down verb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, up, and, down.

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, up, and, down.
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To scrutinize every aspect of someone's appearance, as to make a judgement or first impression of them.
    • He looked her up and down. Sucked on the cigar.2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 52, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 261

Forms of look up and down

third-person singular presentlooks up and down
present participlelooking up and down
past participlelooked up and down
pastlooked up and down

Questions about look up and down

What does look up and down mean?
Look up and down means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, up, and, down.
What part of speech is look up and down?
Look up and down is a verb.
What is the past tense of look up and down?
The past tense of look up and down is looked up and down.

Words near look up and down in the dictionary

  1. look through rose-colored glasses
  2. look through rose-tinted glasses
  3. look to
  4. look under rocks
  5. look up
  6. look up and down
  7. look up to
  8. look upon
  9. look what the cat dragged in
  10. look what the cat drug in
  11. look what the cat's dragged in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: look up and down (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.

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