look back

present singular third person looks back · participle present looking back · participle past looked back · past looked back

1. To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight).

   Near-synonyms: recollect, recall, remember

   4 more examples

   When I look back at my summer holidays as a child, I smile.

   I can't tell you what you're feelin' inside / And I can't sell you what you don't want to buy / Something's missing, you got to look back on your life / You know something here just ain't right

   1985, Brian Allen, Sheron Alton, Jim Vallance, “What About Love”, in Heart, performed by Heart

   United were made to pay for letting an eight-point lead as little as five weeks ago slip and, despite their final-day efforts, they will look back on a season where, when they needed to step up, they fell flat.

   2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport

   For Crossrail 2, people on this project a few years ago hoped they would move directly on to that. "Obviously, politics and money haven't come together in the same way as they did for Crossrail 1, but I've said to the team that if you look back at everything from HS1 and the Channel Tunnel, these things always happen... but the question is timing. […] "The Jubilee Line is another one. It seems very unlikely, with these transformational things, that people will look back in a few decades' time and think we shouldn't have built it.

   2023 February 8, Paul Stephen with Howard Smith, “Elizabeth Line: "It's not job done yet"”, in RAIL, number 976, page 35

   Synonyms: think back, hark back, review, reminisce, recollect, recall, remember

2. intransitiveTo reconsider or regret.

   You do what you have to do, and don't look back.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, back.

   Don't look back in anger, I heard you say

   1996, Oasis, “Don't Look Back in Anger”, in (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

plural look backs

1. alternativeAlternative form of look-back.