look after

British

verb

to take care of; be responsible for

she looked after the child while I was out
to follow with the eyes

he looked after the girl thoughtfully

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

look after Idioms

Also, look out for; see after. Take care of, attend to the safety or well-being of, as in Please look after your little brother, or We left Jane to look out for the children, or Please see after the luggage. The first expression dates from the second half of the 1300s, the second from the mid-1900s, and the third from the early 1700s.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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look after

"We don't have time to look after them properly."

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

"Even parents who feel they couldn't look after a child at that point find it particularly brutal that they're going to have no contact, or very little contact, with that child until they're 18."

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

Why don't we look after each other more?

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

In the meantime, a healthy, balanced diet remains one of the best ways to look after your heart.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026

Who would look after her when we were gone and the boys were married with families of their own?

From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

look after

verb

Example Sentences

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