/saɪt/, /səɪt/
OriginFrom Middle English siȝht, siȝt, siht, from Old English siht, sihþ (“something seen; vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *sihti, equivalent to see + -t. Cognate with Scots sicht, Saterland Frisian Sicht, West Frisian sicht, Dutch zicht, German Low German Sicht, German Sicht, Danish sigte, Swedish sikte.
- countable, singular, uncountableThe ability to see.
“He is losing his sight and now can barely read.”
“Thy sight is young, / And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle.”
“O loſs of ſight, of thee I moſt complain!”
- countable, uncountableThe act of seeing; perception of objects by the eye; view.
“to gain sight of land”
“And when hee had spoken these things, while they beheld, hee was taken vp, and a cloud receiued him out of their sight.”
- countable, uncountableSomething seen.
“He's a really remarkable man and it's very hard to get him in one's sights; […]”
- countable, in-plural, often, uncountableSomething worth seeing; a spectacle, either good or bad.
“We went to London and saw all the sights – Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, and so on.”
“You really look a sight in that ridiculous costume!”
“And Moses saide, I will nowe turne aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”
- countable, in-plural, often, uncountableA device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.
- countable, uncountableA small aperture through which objects are to be seen, and by which their direction is settled or ascertained.
“the sight of a quadrant”
“their eyes of fire sparking through sights of steel”
- colloquial, countable, uncountablea great deal, a lot; frequently used to intensify a comparative.
“a sight of money”
“This is a darn sight better than what I'm used to at home!”
“"If your mother put you in the pit at twelve, it's no reason why I should do the same with my lad."
"Twelve! It wor a sight afore that!"”
- countable, uncountableIn a drawing, picture, etc., that part of the surface, as of paper or canvas, which is within the frame or the border or margin. In a frame, the open space, the opening.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableThe instrument of seeing; the eye.
“Why cloude they not their ſights perpetually,”
- countable, uncountableMental view; opinion; judgment.
“In their sight it was harmless.”
“a very heinous Sin in the Sight of God”
“That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
- transitiveTo see; to get sight of (something); to register visually.
“I was on my way to the door, but all at once, through the fog in my head, I began to sight one reef that I hadn't paid any attention to afore.”
“to sight land from a ship”
- transitiveTo observe through, or as if through, a sight, to check the elevation, direction, levelness, or other characteristics of, especially when surveying or navigating.
“Next a point of known elevation, preferably one of the triangulation stations, is sighted; the vertical angle is read and the horizontal distance is scaled from the point of the setup on the map to th”
- transitiveTo apply sights to; to adjust the sights of.
“to sight a rifle or a cannon”
- intransitive, transitiveTo observe or aim (at something) using a (gun) sight.
“Jim braced the gun and sighted, tried to pull the trigger. Beside him a body collapsed, limp. It was Max. A shot had gone through his brain. Jim stared down at him, numb with horror.”
“So I sighted the deer with my .30—30 and fired at him. The bullet hit about ten yards below the deer. I realized that I had a problem with the gun so I aimed about ten yards above the deer as he was r”
“This buck was finally mine. I had spent hours shooting at moving targets with that rifle and there was no way I could miss. I raised my gun and sighted through the scope.”
Formssights(plural) · sights(present, singular, third-person) · sighting(participle, present) · sighted(participle, past) · sighted(past)