overlook
Verboverlooks, overlooking, overlooked
Noun pluraloverlooks
Formsoverlooks, overlooking, overlooked
Pluraloverlooks
- 1To fail to notice something, looking past it without seeing it.
Reviewers sometimes overlook key details buried deep in a long report.
He overlooked the warning signs until it was far too late.
Oppositenotice, spot, observe, heed
Note
The accidental meaning: what is overlooked was simply missed, like the biscuits and sandwiches that searchers left behind in H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds (1898). It sits comfortably in the passive (errors were overlooked by the proofreaders). Keep it apart from letting a fault pass, where the fault is seen and forgiven. Misheed is a rarer synonym.
- 2To deliberately ignore a mistake or flaw, letting it pass without criticism or punishment.
Managers sometimes overlook minor rule-breaking to keep morale high.
The referee overlooked the foul because play had already moved on.
Similarignore, disregard, discount, neglect
Oppositepunish, penalize, criticize
Note
Here the fault is seen, and the choice is not to hold it against anyone. Jane Austen's Emma (1815) uses it without a specific fault as object: "one ought to overlook, and one does overlook a great deal." Its usual objects are defects, flaws and behavior. A phrase like not willing to overlook signals a refusal to forgive.
- 3To face and look out over something lower down, giving a view of it.
The castle terrace overlooks the entire valley below.
Tall windows overlook the busy square from the third floor.
Similarface, command, dominate
Note
Here the subject is a place: a hotel room, a balcony, a hill, a railway line on its cliff. Nobody needs to be looking. The room overlooks the lake whether or not anyone stands at the window. That is the clearest way to tell it from looking down from above, where someone or something on high does the looking.
- 4To look down on something from above or from a higher location.
Sentries overlook the harbor from the fortress walls.
She climbed up to overlook the valley spread out below.
Similarsurvey
Note
Height makes the difference. Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848) has a tall man who could overlook the crowd, seeing over heads rather than missing anything. Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3 gives the grim version: a severed head set on York gates "so York may overlook the town of York." Survey and look over are close synonyms.
- 5A high point or platform that gives a view down over something below.
The overlook at the summit reveals the entire coastline.
Park rangers built a new overlook above the waterfall.
Similarviewpoint, lookout, outlook
Note
A word for parks and recreation areas. The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area's General Management Plan (1980) lists stopping at an overlook alongside swimming, picnicking and hiking. The noun names the place that does what the "gives a view" verb describes. It is countable, so one road or trail can have several overlooks.
- 6To supervise or watch over someone or something.
A trusted servant would overlook the whole household in the master's absence.
His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking.
c. 1604, William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”Note
An older use that did the work oversee and supervise do now. In Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde (1590), a page "ouerlookt that al was in a readinesse." Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well even makes a noun of it: a child "bequeathed to my overlooking." Modern readers would take overlook the laborers to mean ignoring them, so write oversee.
- 7To watch someone or something secretly, in a hidden or surreptitious way.
The spy would overlook the camp from a hidden ridge above the trees.
From the gallery he overlooked the conspirators as they whispered.
Note
Watching without being noticed, often over someone's shoulder. Aaron Hill's The Plain Dealer (1724) has a narrator who "lean'd back in my Chair, and overlook'd what he was doing." It sits close to the supervising sense, and secrecy is what sets it apart. In current English, spy on or watch covertly does the job without confusion.
- 8To inspect or examine something carefully, going over it closely or repeatedly.
The clerk would overlook the accounts before signing them off.
Now when he had ouerlooked his armie ouer euerie side, he paused awhile, and after with a lowd voice and bold spirit spake to his companions these, or the like words following.
1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “Richard the third”Similarexamine, inspect, check, study, analyze
Note
Close inspection, the near-opposite of failing to notice. In Thomas Lodge's Josephus (1602), spies are sent "to ouerlooke the land of Chanaan." Arthur Murphy (1752) has two companions overlook a mortgage deed. A modern reader would take both as neglect, so in current English use look over, go over or scrutinize instead.
- 9To bewitch or curse someone with an evil eye, harming them simply by looking upon them.
Mothers feared a jealous neighbor might overlook their newborns.
The farmer swore a witch had overlooked his cows and dried their milk.
Note
The gaze that bewitches. Shakespeare turns it into a lover's complaint in The Merchant of Venice, where Portia says "Beshrew your eyes, They have o'erlook'd me and divided me." O'erlook'd is the contracted verse spelling. Outside historical writing or folklore, few readers will recognize this meaning, so make it clear from context if you use it.
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Practice
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Origin
From Middle English 'overloken', which is 'over-' combined with 'look'.