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on the lookout
Also, on the watch. Vigilant, alert, as in Be on the lookout for the twins—they're somewhere on this playground, or He was on the watch for her arrival. Both phrases were originally used with upon. Upon the lookout was originally nautical usage, meaning “on duty being watchful” (as for another ship, rocks, or land); it appeared in the mid-1700s, and on replaced upon about a century later. Upon the watch was first recorded in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), and on the watch in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1797).
Example Sentences
Beijing has ramped up warnings of foreign spies, telling civilians to be on the lookout for suspicious figures.
I’m on the lookout for natural fiber sponges.
Agents in the mountain HQ are on the lookout for signs of espionage and sabotage around what officials call underwater "critical infrastructure" as part of the Kremlin's hybrid warfare against the West.
A fan of art shows and experimental music performances, Collins described himself as always on the lookout for new community spaces.
Each morning there's a huddle of cameras and reporters on the lookout for the men in lace and scarlet robes.
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