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Gaze vs Sight - What's the difference?

gaze | sight |

As verbs the difference between gaze and sight

is that gaze is to stare intently or earnestly while sight is to register visually.

As nouns the difference between gaze and sight

is that gaze is a fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention while sight is the ability to see.

gaze

English

Verb

(gaz)
  • To stare intently or earnestly.
  • * 1922 , (James Joyce), Chapter 13
  • Gerty MacDowell who was seated near her companions, lost in thought, gazing far away into the distance was, in very truth, as fair a specimen of winsome Irish girlhood as one could wish to see.
    In fact, for Antonioni this gazing is probably the most fundamental of all cognitive activities ... (from Thinking in the Absence of Image)
  • * Bible, Acts i. 11
  • Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
  • (poetic) To stare at.
  • * 1667': Strait toward Heav'n my wondring Eyes I turnd, / And '''gaz'd a while the ample Skie — John Milton, ''Paradise Lost (book VIII)
  • Synonyms

    * gape, stare, look

    Troponyms

    * (to stare intently) ogle

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention.
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze , her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
  • (lb) The object gazed on.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:made of my enemies the scorn and gaze
  • In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the relationship of the subject with the desire to look and awareness that one can be viewed.
  • *2003 , Amelia Jones, The feminism and visual culture reader , p.35:
  • *:She counters the tendency to focus on critical strategies of resisting the male gaze , raising the issue of the female spectator.
  • Derived terms

    * (l)

    References

    ----

    sight

    English

    Noun

  • (in the singular) The ability to see.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thy sight is young, / And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle.
  • * Milton
  • O loss of sight , of thee I most complain!
  • The act of seeing; perception of objects by the eye; view.
  • to gain sight of land
  • * Bible, Acts i. 9
  • A cloud received him out of their sight .
  • Something seen.
  • * 2005 , Lesley Brown (translator), :
  • * He's a really remarkable man and it's very hard to get him in one's sights ;
  • Something worth seeing; a spectacle.
  • You really look a sight in that silly costume!
  • * Bible, Exodus iii. 3
  • Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight , why the bush is not burnt.
  • * Spenser
  • They never saw a sight so fair.
  • A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.
  • A small aperture through which objects are to be seen, and by which their direction is settled or ascertained.
  • the sight of a quadrant
  • * Shakespeare
  • their eyes of fire sparking through sights of steel
  • a 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!
  • * Gower
  • a wonder sight of flowers
  • * 1913 ,
  • "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!"
  • In 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.
  • (obsolete) The instrument of seeing; the eye.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Why cloud they not their sights ?
  • Mental view; opinion; judgment.
  • In their sight it was harmless.
    (Wake)
  • * Bible, Luke xvi. 15
  • That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

    Synonyms

    * (ability to see) sense of sight, vision * (something seen) view * (aiming device) scope, peep sight

    Derived terms

    * sight for sore eyes * far-sighted * in sight * insight * long-sighted * near-sighted * not a pretty sight * at sight * on sight * out of sight * * outsight * second sight * short-sighted * sight cheque * sight draft * sight for sore eyes * sight gag * sight rhyme * sight unseen

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To register visually.
  • To get sight of (something).
  • * , chapter=4
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=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 apply sights to; to adjust the sights of; also, to give the proper elevation and direction to by means of a sight.
  • To take aim at.
  • Synonyms

    * (visually register) see * (get sight of) espy, glimpse, spot * (take aim) aim at, take aim at

    Derived terms

    * resight

    See also

    * see * vision

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

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