To look through something is to examine a set of things one after another. A folder, a drawer, a pile of photographs.
The completeness is the point, since looking through a file means going past every item rather than sampling. There is a literal sense of seeing through glass. And there is a cold third sense, since looking through somebody means deliberately failing to acknowledge them, which is one of the sharpest social snubs there is. Go through does much the same job as the first sense.
1phraselook throughTo examine a collection of things one by one.
“Would you look through these and tell me if anything is missing?”
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Ways of Looking
First appears in chapter 8 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word