Other forms: overlooking, overlooked, overlooks
To overlook something is to fail to see it when it was right there to be seen. The typo on the first page, the one form nobody signed, the quiet colleague passed over for the job again.
The same word does a second job that sounds nothing like the first: a window, a balcony or a hill overlooks what lies below it, and a flat overlooking the park costs more. Overlook is also the polite verb for choosing not to punish — we will overlook it this time. Two traps. The noun for the mistake is an oversight, not an overlook. And to look something over is the opposite of overlooking it, because that means inspecting it closely.
1verboverlookTo fail to notice or consider something.
“It is easy to overlook a small charge at the bottom of a bill.”
2verbdecideTo decide not to punish something or make a fuss about it.
“The teacher agreed to overlook the late homework.”
3verbviewTo have a view down over something from above.
“Their balcony overlooks the harbour.”
4verbpassTo pass someone over when choosing or rewarding people.
“She was overlooked for promotion three years running.”
Overlook is nothing more exotic than over plus look, and it has been in English since Middle English overloken. English kept both readings of over: standing above a thing and seeing all of it, or letting your eye pass over it and seeing none of it.
Middle English
overloken
English, today
overlook
From Middle English overloken. From Middle English overloken; equivalent to over + look.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA