looker-on
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of looker-on
1530–40; look on + -er 1
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.
See Examples For:
“I am by nature a looker-on rather than a taker-part.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2017
When he arrived in Paris, in the seventeen-forties, at the age of thirty, he was a deracinated looker-on, struggling with complex feelings of envy, fascination, revulsion, and rejection provoked by a self-absorbed élite.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 25, 2016
"Are you her," asks a looker-on, "or are you the drill?"
From The Guardian ● Aug. 13, 2011
"Christ, oh Christ . . . the King's horse!" cried a looker-on.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the attentive looker-on knows that the solitary monkey's life behind the bars is in its way nothing but a tragedy, as well as Cervantes' immortal book is nothing but a mournful epic.
From Vagaries by Munthe, Axel
A large crowd of amateur photographers, space enthusiasts and assorted lookers-on watched the lift-off from an adjoining beach.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 31, 2022
That’s not the only line lookers-on have adopted as an expression of their own distant defiance.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2022
His swearing in was turned to spectacle, complete with throngs of adoring lookers-on, invocations of the divine, and a gun salute.
From Time ● Jan. 13, 2017
Despite all the prestige, money, and adoring lookers-on, at a certain point altruism no longer represents any kind of long-term strategy.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2014
The scryer may let his consciousness play freely, but should not be disturbed by lookers-on.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 7 "Crocoite" to "Cuba" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
