looker-on
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“I am by nature a looker-on rather than a taker-part.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2017
When he arrived in Paris, in the seventeen-forties, at the age of thirty, he was a deracinated looker-on, struggling with complex feelings of envy, fascination, revulsion, and rejection provoked by a self-absorbed élite.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 25, 2016
"Are you her," asks a looker-on, "or are you the drill?"
From The Guardian ● Aug. 13, 2011
"Christ, oh Christ . . . the King's horse!" cried a looker-on.
From Time Magazine Archive
As a looker-on and an observer of events in this country, I must confess my astonishment at the ignorance, perverseness, and stupidity of men whom I have ever heretofore regarded as honorable and truthful.
From A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information by William Henry Gray
A large crowd of amateur photographers, space enthusiasts and assorted lookers-on watched the lift-off from an adjoining beach.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 31, 2022
Admiring lookers-on then respond via tweet or Facebook post: “Well done! But it could use more cowbell.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 2, 2017
His swearing in was turned to spectacle, complete with throngs of adoring lookers-on, invocations of the divine, and a gun salute.
From Time ● Jan. 13, 2017
Despite all the prestige, money, and adoring lookers-on, at a certain point altruism no longer represents any kind of long-term strategy.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2014
The lookers-on become impatient of their customary duty of showing sympathy, because they find it too much trouble to maintain the appearance of this emotion for any length of time.
From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
