looking over one's shoulder

Verb

look over one's shoulder (third-person singular simple present looks over one's shoulder, present participle looking over one's shoulder, simple past and past participle looked over one's shoulder)

1. (idiomatic) To check obsessively out of excessive caution or fear of a perceived danger.
   • This is a cutthroat industry. You have to constantly look over your shoulder.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, over, shoulder.
   • Once I visited the Kings Cross office on an extremely foggy day and about 3.45 I was looking over the shoulder of the Section Controller for the Kings Cross-Finsbury Park stretch.1962 May, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 343