Word.ws English Dictionary

on the lookout

on the lookout prepositional phrase: constantly alert, intent on finding something or someone.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Constantly alert, intent on finding something or someone.
    • I'm on the lookout for a good example of a Roman dinar from the 1st century. Let me know if you hear of one anywhere.
    • In London, of all places, where people are always on the lookout for opportunities to commit crimes: an unzipped handbag, a phone sticking out of a back pocket, an unpadlocked bike.2020, Jess Ryder, The Night Away
    Synonyms:
    on the outlook

Synonyms of on the lookout

Words formed from on the lookout

Questions about on the lookout

What does on the lookout mean?
On the lookout means constantly alert, intent on finding something or someone.
What part of speech is on the lookout?
On the lookout is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the lookout in the dictionary

  1. on the lash
  2. on the latch
  3. on the level
  4. on the line
  5. on the lines of
  6. on the lookout
  7. on the loose
  8. on the low
  9. on the make
  10. on the march
  11. on the mark

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the lookout (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: “on the lookout.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_lookout. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.