on sight

Idioms

Also, at sight. Immediately upon seeing, as in The soldiers threatened to shoot looters on sight, or He's able to multiply those three-digit figures at sight. [Second half of 1400s]

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.

"Operators do a lot of caramel testing, just on sight and on feel. So basically, they walk up to the caramel and just give it a squeeze."

From BBC • Dec. 18, 2025

I don't want to sound like I'm prejudging these birds, but they're not like peacocks where it is easy to tell them apart on sight.

From Salon • Nov. 16, 2024

In New York they proved to be such a problem that officials encouraged residents to kill them on sight.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 13, 2024

Astronomy has long centered on sight, says Kimberly Arcand, visualization scientist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

From National Geographic • Jan. 26, 2024

Still, I thought I would recognize Poseidon on sight.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

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