know by sight

1. Recognize someone or something by appearance but not know the name or other details. For example, I know a lot of people by sight from the tennis courts. [1200s]

Example Sentences

He wanted the officers to know by sight that he was a veteran, and someone they could talk to.

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Dyslexia’s most visible indicators often don’t emerge until third or fourth grade, when students advance from reading words they know by sight memory and onto more complicated terms.

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How would a state trooper know by sight whether a passenger in a vehicle has a driver’s license?

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Behind them, an enormous mother, in a brown silk dress, and the father, a rather frail little man I know by sight.

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Know by sight and call ten common birds.

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