see

Less common meanings

10. 10
    dateverbtransitive

    To date someone regularly.

    They started seeing each other last spring.

    He wants to see other people.

    UsageUsually in the -ing form: they're seeing each other. We should see other people can suggest a breakup.

    Similardate

    Note

    Put into the simple present, I see her slips back toward a glimpse or a call. The sense sits close to the visiting meaning, meeting someone again and again, and it often admits a relationship without saying how serious it is.

11. 11
    make sureverbtransitive

    Chiefly with that, to ensure that something happens, often by being there.

    Please see that the door is locked.

    Will you see that the children get fed before you leave tonight?

    UsagePattern: see that + clause, or see to it that: see to it that the door is locked.

    Similarensure

    Note

    Two constructions carry this meaning. The usual one is see that plus a clause, as in Blackstone's 1765 legal prose, where visitors are 'to see that that property is rightly employed'. The other takes an object and a bare verb, as in the threat I'll see you hang for this. There the speaker vows both to make it happen and to be present when it does. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The cited legal prose is by William Blackstone and was first published in 1765, in Book I of Commentaries on the Laws of England. gutenberg.org
    • Blackstone uses the quoted wording when describing the responsibilities of legal visitors. gutenberg.org
12. 12
    predictverbtransitive

    To foresee, predict or prophesy.

    Nobody saw the crash coming.

    I can see trouble ahead if we go on like this.

    UsageSet phrase: see something coming: nobody saw it coming.

    Similarforesee, predict, anticipate, envisage, forecast

13. 13
    you knowinterjection

    Used to introduce an explanation, like look, well or so.

    See, I would have called you, but my phone died on the way home.

    See, it works if you hold it this way.

    Similarlook, well, so

    Note

    Standing alone at the head of a sentence, it clears the ground for an explanation: see, in order to win the full prize we would have to land a rover on the Moon. Look, well and so can do the same job. It differs from the emphatic you see in position and force, because it prepares an account instead of insisting on a point already made.

14. 14
    verbtransitive

    To examine something closely, or to borrow and use it briefly.

    May I see the menu?

    Can I see your phone a moment? Mine's dead.

    UsageLet me see and can I see ask someone to show or lend you something.

    Similarborrow, have, check, examine, inspect

15. 15
    escortverbtransitive

    To escort, attend or accompany someone somewhere.

    Let me see you to your car.

    The nurse saw him back to the ward.

    UsageNeeds a direction: see someone home, see someone off at the airport, see yourself out.

    Similarescort, accompany, walk, take, show

16. 16
    you knowverbintransitive

    Used as you see, or as see? at the end of a sentence, to stress a point or draw attention to an explanation.

    I told you it would rain, you see.

    We do things properly here, see?

    UsageYou see introduces or softens an explanation; see? at the end can sound blunt or challenging.

    Note

    A tag that presses a point on the listener. Both work as discourse markers, not literal talk of seeing. Keep them apart from the bare interjection, which opens an explanation rather than insisting on one.

17. 17
    match a betverbtransitive

    In gambling, to answer another player's bet with a bet of equal value, often before raising it.

    She saw the raise without a flicker.

    If you can't see the bet, fold.

    UsageSet formula: I'll see your ten and raise you ten.

    Similarcall, match

    Note

    Gamblers pair it with raise in a set formula: I'll see your twenty dollars and raise you ten. The stake is the direct object, and the two verbs split the work: see matches the bet, and raise adds to it. The pattern lets a player answer and escalate in a single breath. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The quoted formula combines matching a bet with raising it; it is an illustrative example without an attributed speaker. en.wiktionary.org
18. 18
    diocesenouncountable

    The area under the authority of a bishop or archbishop, or the office of bishop or archbishop itself.

    He was appointed to a see in the north.

    The two sees were merged in the last century.

    UsageUsually the see of + place: the see of Canterbury.

    Similardiocese, bishopric

    Note

    This noun is a separate word from the verb of seeing. The Holy See is the pope's own see, Rome, and the name also stands for the central government of the Catholic Church. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The Holy See refers to the pope's see of Rome. usccb.org
    • The Holy See also denotes the central government of the Catholic Church. vatican.va
19. 19
    ruler's seatnounarchaiccountable

    A seat or site, especially one from which a sovereign exercises power.

    Ioue laught on Venus from his ſouerayne ſee

    1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

    Similarthrone, seat

    Note

    The word keeps the plain meaning of Latin sēdēs, a seat, stretched to the place where a ruler sits in power. Spenser gives Jove one in 1590: 'Jove laughed on Venus from his sovereign see.' A diocese, the bishop's see, applies the same idea to a church: the throne in a cathedral. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The noun retains the seat or place meanings of Latin sēdēs. en.wiktionary.org
    • See can mean a place where sovereign power is exercised. en.wiktionary.org
    • The relevant part of Spenser's The Faerie Queene was first published in 1590. en.wikisource.org
    • The quotation accurately modernizes the spelling of the narrator's line in The Faerie Queene, Book III, Canto VI, stanza 2. en.wikisource.org
    • The ecclesiastical application involves the bishop's throne in the cathedral of the diocese. en.wikipedia.org