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look up

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look someone or something up

 and hunt someone or something up

1. to seek someone, a group, or something out. I lost track of Sally. I'll try to look her up and get in touch with her. lam going to look up an old friend when lam in Chicago. I am going to hunt that old gang up. Ted came into town and looked up his favorite pizza place.

2. to seek information about someone or something in a book or listing. I don't recognize his name. I'll look him up and see what I can find. I'll look up this person in a reference book. She looked herself up in the telephone book to make sure her name was spelled correctly.

See also: look, up

look up

to show promise of improving. My prospects for a job are looking up. Conditions are looking up.

See also: look, up

look up (from something)

to gaze upwards; to stop reading or working and lift one's gaze upward. She looked up from her reading and spoke to us. Mary looked up as we came into the room.

See also: look, up

look somebody up

also look up somebody

to visit someone Look me up the next time you're in Los Angeles. I hope you'll look up my niece while you're in Pittsburgh.

See also: look, up

look something up

also look up something

to check a fact or get information about something If you don't know the meaning of the word, look it up in your dictionary. The research involved looking up how my opponent voted.

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look up

1. Search for in a book or other source, as in I told her to look up the word in the dictionary. [Late 1600s]

2. Call on or visit, as in I'm going to look up my friend in Chicago. [Mid-1800s]

3. Become better, improve, as in Business is finally looking up. [c. 1800]

4. look up to. Admire, respect, as in The students really looked up to Mr. Jones. [Early 1700s]

See also: look, up

look up

v.

1. To direct one's gaze upward: Look up at that cloud; it looks like a dog!

2. To search for information about someone or something from a reference source, such as a book or a file system: He looked up the word "gullible" in the dictionary. I forgot her phone number, so I looked it up on the Internet.

3. To seek out and visit or contact someone: We looked up an old friend when we visited Boston. I looked my college roommate up, and we got together to talk about the old days.

4. To become better; improve: Things are looking up now that the weather's better.

5. look up to To hold someone in high regard: I look up to my parents.

See also: look, up