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once-over-lightly

[ wuhns-oh-ver-lahyt-lee ]
/ ˈwʌnsˌoʊ vərˈlaɪt li /
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR once-over-lightly ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Informal.

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

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RELATED WORDS

outwardly, scan, read, peruse, skim, feed, survey, graze, nibble, leaf, thumb, apparently, carelessly, casually, hastily, ostensibly, partially, externally, extraneously, frivolously

Nearby words

  1. once in a while,
  2. once more unto the breach, dear friends,
  3. once over lightly,
  4. once upon a time,
  5. once-over,
  6. oncer,
  7. onchocerca,
  8. onchocerciasis,
  9. oncidium,
  10. onco-

Origin of once-over-lightly

First recorded in 1940–45
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
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.