look daggers at (one)
(redirected from one is looking daggers at you)look daggers at (one)
To glare at someone very angrily, spitefully, or disdainfully. I noticed the bride looking daggers at the best man as he started making vulgar jokes during his speech.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
look daggers at someone
Fig. to give someone a dirty look. Tom must have been mad at Ann from the way he was looking daggers at her. Don't you dare look daggers at me! Don't even look cross-eyed at me!
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
look daggers
Glare, stare fiercely, as in When she started to discuss their finances, he looked daggers at her. This metaphoric term, likening an angry expression to a dagger's thrust, dates from ancient times and has appeared in English since about 1600.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
look daggers at someone
LITERARYIf someone looks daggers at you, they stare at you in a very angry way. Christabel stopped combing her hair and looked daggers at Ron. Note: Verbs such as stare and shoot are sometimes used instead of look. Mr. Trancas was grinning, while the other man stared daggers at him. Dede shot daggers at her adversary until she was out of sight.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
look daggers at
glare angrily or venomously at.The expression speak daggers is also found and is used by Shakespeare's Hamlet in the scene in which he reproaches his mother.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
look ˈdaggers at somebody
look at somebody very angrily but not say anything: He looked daggers at her across the room when she mentioned his divorce.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
look daggers at
To glare at angrily or hatefully.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
look daggers at, to
To glare at someone. The term first appeared in the Greek playwright Aristophanes’s The Birds (ca. 414 b.c.) and was alluded to several times by Shakespeare. “There’s daggers in men’s smiles,” he wrote (Macbeth, 2:3). The image aptly conveys the fierceness of such a glance and appealed to numerous other writers, including Thoreau. A synonymous cliché is if looks could kill, which has been around since the early 1900s. Frank Harris used it in My Life and Loves (1922): “When they let me up I looked at Jones, and if looks could kill, he would have had short shrift.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer