Talk:look through

Look through a magazine

The "search" definition isn't quite right. That sense ought to cover "look through a magazine", which is idly flipping and reading bits and pieces, not searching. Equinox ◑ 17:27, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

@Equinox, Is that better? I borrowed from Century. -Mike (talk) 23:25, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

 Done Yes, thanks! Equinox ◑ 23:33, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

RFD discussion: July–September 2019

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look through

sense: "To gaze through a gap or aperture.

He looked through the binoculars at the bird."

This definition, of the four given, is the same as look#Verb + through#Preposition. DCDuring (talk) 16:02, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

Agreed. It's not (He) + (looked through) + (the binoculars) + (at the bird). but rather (He) + (looked) + (through the binoculars) + (at the bird).; the binoculars is not the object of looked through. Leasnam (talk) 22:05, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

Delete. Since you, DCD, added the {{&lit}} sense – which clearly subsumes the contested sense – why didn’t you simply change it instead of adding one? (Also, the now superfluous definition is not encompassing enough: “Using his X-ray vision, Superman looked through the concrete wall.” And the preposition through has an object, but gaze is intransitive here. You can’t say, *“He gazed the binoculars through a gap or aperture at the bird.”)  --Lambiam 08:05, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

I don't delete English definitions out of process. We have had staunch defenders of English phrasal verb definitions that have looked quite SoP to me. We have more than 3,000 such phrasal-verb entries, most of which lack an {{&lit}} definition line. DCDuring (talk) 11:47, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

But take, for example, go through. It does not have an {{&lit}} definition line, but the first sense is labelled “(literally)”, with as usex “The train went through the tunnel.” If we change that line into “Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go,‎ through”, we are not deleting a definition, but merely bringing it in line with a usual approach to collocations that have, next to idiomatic phrasal-verb senses, also an SOP sense.  --Lambiam 13:05, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

• Delete and move example sentence to "&lit" definition. By the way, does anyone understand sense 4, "To penetrate with the understanding"? This definition doesn't even seem like correct English to me. Mihia (talk) 23:45, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

I listed sense 4 at RFV. Mihia (talk) 11:14, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• RFD deleted on the sense per consensus, via diff. --Dan Polansky (talk) 08:22, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

RFV discussion: August–September 2019

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look through

Sense 4:

1. To penetrate with the understanding.

To me this definition does not seem like exactly correct English, but I think it is trying to say that "look through" can mean the same as "see through" in the sense like "He saw through my litle fib". Can it? Or if someone can penetrate another meaning out of this with their understanding then please enlighten us. Mihia (talk) 11:13, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Can't figure it out - removed. SemperBlotto (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

You're closing an RFV after one day because one person can't figure it out? Restored with 1 citation added, for further discussion. Equinox ◑ 12:09, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

I think the 1832 ("look through this deception") unambiguously supports the challenged sense. I have now added another from 1829 ("he would look through my very soul"), which might better be placed under the other sense "take a view of the contents of"; it is arguable. Equinox ◑ 12:13, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Dracula has this (about someone's diary?): "I took them before we knew that all was yours, so that no strange hand might touch them — no strange eye look through words into her soul." But to me that one sounds more like look + through, more SoP. Equinox ◑ 12:15, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 22:31, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 23:45, 11 September 2019 (UTC)