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

Black folks, and Black women especially, recognized certain homages on sight: the recurring suggestions of Yoruba deities, the purposeful insertion of certain Black stars in specific scenes, the tributes to mothers living and ancestral.

From Salon • May 2, 2025

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

From National Geographic • Jan. 26, 2024

There was no mistaking who he was, and almost everyone in town recognized him on sight.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 3, 2023

We greeted each other on sight with the outstretched hands, the demi-hugs, the cries of surprise and delight that women are supposed to make who haven’t seen each other for a while.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

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