once-over-lightly

[ wuhns-oh-ver-lahyt-lee ]

nounInformal.
  1. a hasty or superficial treatment, look, examination, etc.; once-over: The maid gave the room the once-over-lightly.

Origin of once-over-lightly

1
First recorded in 1940–45

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

Other Idioms and Phrases with once-over-lightly

once-over-lightly

Cursorily, quickly, as in I did go over the program once over lightly, but perhaps I should read it more carefully. [Colloquial; mid-1900s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.