Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To look over or at from a higher place.
- v. To rise above, especially so as to afford a view over: The tower overlooks the sea.
- v. To fail to notice or consider; miss.
- v. To ignore deliberately or indulgently; disregard.
- v. To look over; examine.
- v. To watch over; oversee. See Synonyms at supervise.
- n. An elevated place that affords an extensive view: a scenic overlook.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To look over; view from a higher place; see from a higher position.
- To rise or be elevated above; rise so high as to afford the means of looking down on.
- To view fully; look over; peruse; read.
- To keep an eye on; inspect; superintend; oversee; care for or watch over.
- To look beyond or by so as to fail to see, or so as to disregard or neglect; pay no attention to; disregard; hence, to pass over indulgently; excuse; forbear to punish or censure.
- To bewitch by looking on; confound; unsettle.
- n. A strong-growing leguminous twining plant of the tropics, Canavalia ensiformis. It is so named by the West Indian negroes, who plant it to mark boundaries, with the idea that it acts as a watchman.
- A coined word used in the textile and other similar trades to describe a stitch made by a sewing-machine which, on the cut edge of a single thickness of material, or in joining the edges of two pieces of material, makes covering stitches which conceal the otherwise projecting thread-ends, and at the same time locks the stitches so as to give strength to the artificial selvage or seam thus made; also applied to the machine which makes this artificial selvage or over-seam.
Wiktionary
- v. To look down upon from a place that is over or above; to look over or view from a higher position; to rise above, so as to command a view of
- v. Hence: To supervise; to watch over; sometimes, to observe secretly
- v. To inspect; to examine; to look over carefully or repeatedly.
- v. To look upon with an evil eye; to bewitch by looking upon; to fascinate.
- v. To fail to notice; to look over and beyond (anything) without seeing it; to miss or omit in looking.
- v. To pretend not to have noticed, especially a mistake; to pass over without censure or punishment.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To look down upon from a place that is over or above; to look over or view from a higher position; to be situated above, so as to command a view of.
- v. Hence: To supervise; to watch over; sometimes, to observe secretly
- v. To inspect; to examine; to look over carefully or repeatedly.
- v. Obs. or Prov. Eng. To look upon with an evil eye; to bewitch by looking upon; to fascinate.
- v. To look over and beyond (anything) without seeing it; to miss or omit in looking; to fail to notice; to fail to observe.
- v. To refrain from bestowing notice or attention upon; to disregard or deliberately ignore; to pass over without censure or punishment; to excuse or pardon (a fault, error, or misdeed).
WordNet 3.0
- v. look down on
- n. a high place affording a good view
- v. be oriented in a certain direction
- v. look past, fail to notice
- v. watch over
- v. leave undone or leave out
Etymologies
- From over- + look. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I think what you overlook is this: human ingenuity needs freedom.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » The Narrow-Mindedness of Zero-Sum Thinking
“But what they overlook is that macho monetarism only works to stimulate demand, investment and jobs under certain conditions? and early post-recession Britain doesn't fit the bill.”
The Guardian: Construction gives UK economic recovery an unstable foundation
“The thing people overlook is that the Constitution not only contains substantive provisions, but procedural ones.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Would “Deem & Pass” Survive Judicial Review?
“What most individuals tend to overlook is the fact that even the walls offer a great way of expanding their storage options.”
“What people often overlook is the fact that Apple puts MASSIVE consumer advertising behind the iPhone and the app store as well.”
“When discussing how ‘generous’ the police pension is, what detractors often overlook is that it is not a ‘free’, non-contributory pension, like say, the forces.”
We Are So Unpopular That Everyone Wants To Join SHOCK! « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“The problem that those of us in the world of technology overlook is that most people are using systems that are miserably unsuited to their needs.”
“What anti-theists overlook is the possibility that a religious law could have a practical basis for it.”
“But what planners often overlook is that this desire certainly includes protection from U.S. forces, or at least U.S. ordnance.”
“The other ticking time bomb most privitazation advocates overlook is 'insurance' for those who end up with bad returns and too little for retirement.”
Private Investment is Dangerous, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘overlook’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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It's Over: A Beginning
Terms that start with the string over-, beginning with overanxious.
Your entries are welcome.
overanxious, overachiever, oversimplified, overdone, overaccentuate, overact, overadjustment, overage, overaggressive, overalert, overalls, overambitious and 138 more...
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Autantonyms
Words that are the opposites of themselves; each of the words in the list below has at least two definitions of which one is the complete contrary of the other.
fast, buckle, weather, out, weedy, overlook, cleave, let, clip, quite, sanction, bolt and 19 more...
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Autantonyms
Words with mutually exclusive double meanings. Also, here are some:
QUASI-AUTANTONYMS: slow up/slow down; bar/debar; bone/debone; burn up/burn down; fat chance/slim chance; fill in/fil...clip, cleave, sanction, handicap, fast, jibe, secrete, aloha, bimonthly, bolt, cheerio, commencement and 139 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Contranyms
Words that mean what they mean, and the opposite of that!
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FTL
Words listed first by me that don't belong in any other list.
licit, precis, mnemosyne, badinage, mariposa, lepidoptera, coruscation, poignant, meme, oxymoron, xenophobia, asterism and 128 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2041 more...
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contranyms
cleave, dust, left, fast, clip, custom, handicap, lease, rent, strike, quantum, overlook and 3 more...
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Words & Phrases #3 (Getting There...)
prescription, diminish, stringent, tone, tugboat, geek, top-notch, retrofit, paranoid, ferris wheel, fountain, apex and 8 more...
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TT1 Lesson 11
parkway, ridge, overlook, view, breathtaking, distance, waterfall, valley, trail, hike, hiking, hiker and 17 more...
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OM3 Lesson 33
elderly, actually, smell, leftovers, throw together, stew, garbage, truck, garbage man, garbage can, nail, nail scissors and 21 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for overlook.

oroboros Contronymic in the sense: look at, view spot vs. gap in perception. Jan 31, 2007