look in on

verb

To check that (someone or something) is okay or that a process is continuing appropriately; to check up on; to monitor (someone) through brief, often surreptitious checks.

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Meanings

verblook in on (third-person singular simple present looks in on, present participle looking in on, simple past and past participle looked in on)

present singular third person looks in on · participle present looking in on · participle past looked in on · past looked in on

  1. To check that (someone or something) is okay or that a process is continuing appropriately; to check up on; to monitor (someone) through brief, often surreptitious checks.

    Atticus would flee to his office directly after dinner, where if we sometimes looked in on him, we would find him sitting back in his swivel chair reading.

    1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

look in on. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/look%20in%20on

MLA

“look in on.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/look%20in%20on. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “look in on,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/look%20in%20on.

Source: look in on on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.