look over one's shoulder

present singular third person looks over one's shoulder · participle present looking over one's shoulder · participle past looked over one's shoulder · past looked over one's shoulder

1. idiomaticTo check obsessively out of excessive caution or fear of a perceived danger.

   This is a cutthroat industry. You have to constantly look over your shoulder.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see look, over, shoulder.

   Nick walked over and touched the brass knob, looked over his shoulder as if Judah may be watching from the doorway.

   2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 28, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 150

   1 more example

   Once I visited the Kings Cross office on an extremely foggy day and about 3.45 I was looking over the shoulder of the Section Controller for the Kings Cross-Finsbury Park stretch.

   1962 May, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 343