Sight

The word sight is used both as a noun and as a verb.

As a noun linked to the verb ‘to see’ ‘sight’ may mean

either ‘the act or power of seeing’, as in ‘Blind people have lost their sight', ‘His sight is deteriorating rapidly’, and ‘The sight of the poor beggar made her want to give him all she had in her purse’;

or ‘what is seen, the object of vision’, as in ‘The sight before him revived painful memories’ and ‘A total eclipse of the sun is a sight not many have witnessed’.

• The idiomatic expression ‘a sight for sore eyes’ may be applied to a person or thing that one is very pleased or relieved to see.

or ‘what is worth seeing, or agreeable or interesting to see’, as in ‘The Tower of London is one of the capital’s sights’.

or a device which enables accurate visual assessments of distance and direction and so, e.g., helps the user of a firearm to aim their weapon appropriately on the target. When the word is used in this way, the plural ‘sights’ is commonly found.

• The expression ‘to have in one’s sights' may be used metaphorically - in two ways. If what one has in one’s sights is a person, one is trying to catch, defeat, or in some way get the better of them and is close to doing so - the police might say of a criminal whom they plan to arrest very soon ‘We have him in our sights’. If what one has in one’s sights is not a person, it is something one is trying hard to achieve and is close to achieving - one might say of an able, hard-working Final Year student ‘She has a First in her sights’. See also backsight, in Cite - sight - site.

As a verb, 'to sight' means ‘to see, view, or glimpse’, though. its use is relatively restricted and it cannot often be used interchangeably with any of these verbs. It is most naturally used in contexts in which someone is observing a scene or looking out for something: e.g., 'After many days at sea, Columbus sighted America’, ‘The look-out in the observation post has sighted enemy troops advancing on the right flank’; ‘The bird-watchers sighted a golden eagle on its nest’. The verb is perhaps more commonly used in the passive than in the active voice, e.g., ‘Enemy troops have been sighted on the right flank’, ‘A golden eagle was sighted on its nest’.

The participle sighted, meaning ‘having sight, not blind’, is also used in combination to mean ‘having sight of a specific kind’, e.g., ‘short-sighted’ (myopic), ‘near-sighted’ (myopic), ‘long-sighted’ (hyperopic). ‘Long-sighted’ is also used metaphorically to mean ‘prudent, mindful of possible long-term consequences, insightful’; ‘far-sighted’ has a similar meaning, while its opposite is ‘short-sighted’.

For similar-sounding words that are confused, see cite - sight - site.

See also Forms of sight.