looked

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of look.

   He looked tired after the long drive home.

   The detective looked carefully at every piece of evidence.

   Note

   One regular spelling does two jobs here. As a simple past it stands alone (she looked away); as a past participle it follows have (she has looked everywhere) or, through the uses with at, forms passives such as the evidence was looked at. In the copulative use the complement stays an adjective, not an adverb: he looked tired, never he looked tiredly.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Having the particular look or appearance named by an accompanying descriptive word.

   The well-looked heir charmed every guest at the ball.

   An ill-looked beggar lingered at the gate long after dark.

   Note

   A combining form rather than a free adjective: it needs a word in front, as in ill-looked or well-looked, and it takes no more or most. Dorothy Osborne, writing to Sir William Temple in the 1650s, calls a man "that ill-looked fellow." Modern English mostly says ill-looking instead, which gives these compounds a period flavor. Unlike the past tense of look, an ill-looked fellow is not one who was looked at.

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