Word.ws English Dictionary

looks after

looks after is the third-person singular simple present indicative of look after.

Meaning of look after

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To follow with the eyes; to look in the direction of (someone or something departing).
    • The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter I, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 10
  2. (regional, transitive) To seek out, to look for.
    • My subject does not necessarily oblige me to look after this water, or point forth the place whereunto 'tis now retreated.1695, John Woodward, “(please specify the page)”, in An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth: And Terrestrial Bodies, Especially Minerals: […], London: […] Ric[hard] Wilkin […], →OCLC
  3. (also, reflexive, transitive) To care for; to keep safe.
    • He asked me to look after his daughter while he was away.
    Synonyms:
    take care of
  4. (transitive) To have as one's business; to manage, be responsible for.
    Synonyms:
    keep
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To expect, look forward to.
    • Mens hearts failing them for feare, and for looking after those things which are comming on the earth; For the powers of heauen shall be shaken.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 21:26

Questions about looks after

What is looks after the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Looks after is the third-person singular simple present indicative of look after.

Words near looks after in the dictionary

  1. lookouts
  2. lookover
  3. lookovers
  4. looks
  5. looks a fright
  6. looks after
  7. looks ahead
  8. looks ahead to
  9. looks alike
  10. looks alive
  11. looks and feel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: looks after (page history and authors); look after (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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Cite this entry: “looks after.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/looks_after. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.