lookup

1 of 2

noun

look·​up ˈlu̇k-ˌəp 

variants or look-up

: an act, process, or instance of looking something up (as in a reference work or listing)

dictionary lookups

a price look-up

look up

2 of 2

verb

looked up; looking up; looks up

intransitive verb

1

: to cheer up

look up—things are not all bad

2

: to improve in prospects or conditions

business is looking up

transitive verb

1

: to search for in or as if in a reference work

look up an address

2

: to seek out especially for a brief visit

look me up when you're here

Synonyms of lookup

Verb

• pursue
• seek
• search (for or out)

Examples of lookup in a Sentence

Verb

be sure to look me up if you're ever in town

by the next morning, the skies had begun to clear and we were looking up

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Database lookup triggers Agent C, which calls out to an external API and writes results to cloud storage. — Nicola Sfondrini, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026

Sara Zorich, the Democratic director for the Jackson County Election Board, said the website’s voter information lookup does not reflect the 2022 maps that will be used this year. — Jack Harvel, Kansas City Star, 11 Sep. 2026

Verb

In the days after the robbery, Triunfel looked up the police report on the case multiple times while off duty without authorization — and on Monday searched the NYPD database for his own name, according to the complaint. — Roni Jacobson, New York Daily News, 16 Sep. 2026

Here’s a look at the 10 schools looking up at the rest, according to our findings. — David Ubben, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1948, in the meaning defined above

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Kids Definition

lookup

1 of 2 noun

look·​up ˈlu̇k-ˌəp 

: the process or an instance of looking something up

especially : the process of matching by computer the words of a text with material stored in memory

look up

2 of 2 verb

: to seek for or out

look up a word in the dictionary

look up a friend