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

On the lookout for a black government SUV, Caputo and his lawyer were surprised when an FBI agent drove up in his personal car, a white Dodge Charger.

From Reuters • Mar. 22, 2019

On the lookout: Lawyers are circling around Santa Rosa’s burned-out neighborhoods.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 6, 2017

On the lookout for the next derivative-enhanced, subprime mortgage disaster, they keep missing opportunities.

From Washington Post • Jun. 17, 2016

On the lookout for straggling sheep, he occasionally leapt out of his truck to view the horizon with binoculars.

From New York Times • Aug. 24, 2012

On the lookout for any moving thing, he glanced back and down--and saw an old black hat bobbing along through the brush below.

From Partners of Chance by Knibbs, Henry Herbert

Related Words

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