Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To perceive with the eye.
  • intransitive verb To detect by means analogous to use of the eye.
  • intransitive verb To attend or view as a spectator.
  • intransitive verb To refer to or look at.
  • intransitive verb To become aware of or apprehend.
  • intransitive verb To find out or ascertain, often by moving.
  • intransitive verb To take note of; recognize.
  • intransitive verb To consider to be; regard.
  • intransitive verb To have a mental image of; visualize.
  • intransitive verb To foresee or imagine.
  • intransitive verb To know through firsthand experience; undergo or experience.
  • intransitive verb To be characterized by; be the time for.
  • intransitive verb To be subjected to; undergo.
  • intransitive verb To visit, meet, or be in the company of.
  • intransitive verb To share the companionship of as a romantic partner.
  • intransitive verb To visit for consultation.
  • intransitive verb To admit or receive, as for consultation or a social visit.
  • intransitive verb To escort; attend.
  • intransitive verb To make sure; take care.
  • intransitive verb To meet (a bet) in card games.
  • intransitive verb To meet the bet of (another player).
  • intransitive verb To have the power to perceive with the eyes.
  • intransitive verb To have the ability to detect or record visual information.
  • intransitive verb To understand; comprehend.
  • intransitive verb To consider.
  • intransitive verb To go and look.
  • intransitive verb To ascertain; find out.
  • intransitive verb To have foresight.
  • idiom (see red) To be extremely angry.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sen, from Old English sēon; see sekw- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French se, from Vulgar Latin *sedem, from Latin sēdēs, seat; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English seen, from Old English sēon ("to see, look, behold, perceive, observe, discern, understand, know"), from Proto-Germanic *sehwanan (“to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to see, notice”). Cognate with West Frisian sjen ("to see"), Dutch zien ("to see"), Low German sehn, German sehen ("to see"), Danish and Swedish se ("to see"), and more distantly with Latin sīgnum ("sign, token"), Albanian shih ("look at, see") imp. of shoh ("to see").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sedes ("seat"), referring to the bishop's throne or chair (compare seat of power) in the cathedral; related to the Latin verb sedere ("to sit").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word see.

Examples

  • It takes me 45 minutes and I usually see one of the four following people: crazy chatty religious woman; former classmate I pretend not to see& who pretends not to see me; cute guy who always looks a bit sad, a bit drunk; and a woman I fear is compensating for her weight with enormous accessories, despite the fact that she is beautiful.

    On Living in New York City in 2009, After Watching a Documentary on New York City in the Late 1800s 2009

  • Oooo... see... for us visual people, we like to *see* our stuff.

    Simplify 101 BunnyKissd 2007

  • Oooo... see... for us visual people, we like to *see* our stuff.

    Archive 2007-09-01 BunnyKissd 2007

  • The next pit stops I can see are Promos and ALevels and after that I can only see a vast void that stretches as far as the eye can see…

    j-gan Diary Entry j-gan 2005

  • Louis began to realize how much he had wanted to see Prill ... to see her free of the ARM ... to * see* her.

    The Ringworld Engineers Niven, Larry 1980

  • Louis began to realize how much he had wanted to see Prill ... to see her free of the ARM ... to * see* her.

    The Ringworld Engineers Niven, Larry 1980

  • Her own power of realization, assured her on this point -- nobody could see, not divine but _see_, as she did, without being able to reproduce; the one implied the other.

    A Daughter of To-Day Sara Jeannette Duncan

  • Not only will you see the chances for success that are all about you, but you will _see into_ them.

    Certain Success Norval A. Hawkins

  • Herbert! don't you see, _won't you see_, that, if you leave the one great sin all uncovered, open to the continual attrition of a life of goodness, God _will_ let it wear away?

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 58, August, 1862 Various

  • "It is a general rule on all regular plantations, that the slaves be in the field as _soon as it is light enough for them to see to work_, and remain there until it is _so dark that they cannot see_."

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • German for 'lake'.

    "Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee

    With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade:

    And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten."

    T.S. Eliot: "The Waste Land" (The Burial of the Dead)

    January 10, 2008

  • 'The past year has seen them do such-and-such.'

    'His expertise in X has seen him do Y.'

    A strange information-packaging use that promotes an adjunct to subject.

    March 25, 2009

  • *barfs*

    Why, God? Why?

    March 25, 2009

  • Oh, a perfectly unremarkable and harmless construction as long as it hides in the thickets; but when a writer makes a tic of it, as my present one is, out comes the red pen (and a wisp of steam from the ears).

    March 25, 2009

  • qroqqa, my sympathies. You might need this.

    March 26, 2009

  • "The seat of a bishop, whether an ordinary bishop, or a bishop of higher rank (metropolitan, etc., patriarch, pope); the local center of a diocese and of diocesan authority, or of a diocese and other subordinate dioceses; the city or locality from which ecclesiastical jurisdiction is exercised; hence, episcopal rank, authority, and jurisdiction as exercised from a permanent local center. The word see, from meaning any seat of dignity, came to apply specifically to the cathedra, or episcopal throne, situated in a cathedral, thence to the city which contained the cathedral and was the chief city of a bishop's diocese, and so in modern usage to the diocese itself. It differs from diocese, however, in that diocese represents the territorial province for the care of which the bishop is responsible (that is, where his duties lie), whereas see is the local seat of his authority, dignity, and episcopal privileges. Both words differ from bishopric, in that bishopric represents the bishop's office, whether actual or nominal. See throne."

    --Century Dictionary

    I especially like the "See throne" bit. Does throne tell us to "See see?"

    June 13, 2013