Meanings
looking1
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of look
- as the last part of compound adjectives: relating to or having the appearance of.
dorky-looking
2 more examples
By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre CourtGood-Looking, Funny Guy — (Not funny-looking, good guy), 36, Jewish, athletic.
1988 September 12, New York Magazine, page 226
looking2
plural lookings
- The act of one who looks; a glance.
A complicated interplay of lookings and viewings is in play. The staging and performance of the photograph, then, is as much the subject of the photograph as the ostensible subjects […]
2005, Felix Driver, Luciana Martins, Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire, page 162
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveappearing to be as specified; usually used as combining forms
nounthe act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually; look
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
looking · verb
- Old Englishlōcian“to look”
- Old Englishlōciende
- Middle Englishlokynge
- Englishlooking
From Middle English lokynge, from earlier lokinde, lokende, from Old English lōciende, present participle of Old English lōcian (“to look”), equivalent to look + -ing.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →looking · noun
- Old Englishlōcung
- Middle Englishlokynge
- Englishlooking
From Middle English lokynge, lokinge, from Old English lōcung (attested in Old English þurhlōcung), equivalent to look + -ing.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish miramiento
- miramientonoun
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with looking
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
looking. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/looking
“looking.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/looking. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “looking,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/looking.
Source: looking on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.