Meanings
- Apparently.
Frank sighed, and replied, “I know, Dad. It was stupid of me. But by the sound of it you are about to do something stupid too.”
2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN3 more examples
Tom adored to give pleasure while Gore has always liked to boast that he has never knowingly or intentionally gratified any of his partners. Not even a sighing reach-around by the sound of it.
2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 153By the sound of it, the ever obliging Agent Barrett didn't really feel like obliging. Else he was too sleep-drunk to string two rational thoughts together.
2011, Sabine C. Bauer, Stargate SG-1: Transitions, Fandemonium Books (2011), unnumbered pagesHis name was Toby Bell and he was entirely alone in his criminal contemplations. [ - - - ] As to the Toby, which might by the sound of it set him higher on the English social ladder than his provenance deserved, it derived from nothing more elevated than his father's pride in the holy man Tobias, whose wondrous filial virtues are set down in the ancient scripts.
2013, John le Carré, A Delicate Truth, Penguin UK, →ISBNSynonyms: by the look of it, by the looks of things
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseApparently.
Cite this entry
by the sound of it. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20sound%20of%20it
“by the sound of it.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20sound%20of%20it. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “by the sound of it,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20sound%20of%20it.
Source: by the sound of it on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.