on the lookout

Idioms  

1. Also, on the watch. Vigilant, alert, as in Be on the lookout for the twins—they're somewhere on this playground, or He was on the watch for her arrival. Both phrases were originally used with upon. Upon the lookout was originally nautical usage, meaning “on duty being watchful” (as for another ship, rocks, or land); it appeared in the mid-1700s, and on replaced upon about a century later. Upon the watch was first recorded in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), and on the watch in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1797).

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Example Sentences

Be on the lookout for anything that seems too good to be true.

From MarketWatch

Despite the misgivings of the scientific community, longevity enthusiasts like Scott and Chitwood are always on the lookout for the next therapy to try.

From Slate

But I suppose I was a quite unsentimental young man in many ways and I was always on the lookout for some material where I could a rattle the public’s cage a bit.

From Los Angeles Times

In addition to the weather and distances, delivery drivers are on the lookout for more rural road hazards such as deer and bears, said Brandon Ray, who runs part of the delivery-vehicle fleet at the Missoula facility.

From The Wall Street Journal

We’d been on the lookout for that letter these many weeks, and waiting hadn’t improved Tansy’s disposition.

From Literature

Related Words

• active
• bright
• careful
• intelligent
• observant
• perceptive
• sharp
• vigilant
• wary
• watchful
• wired
• wise