noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A quick clean or polish.

   "I gave the room a once-over with the mop."

2. 2
   a swift cursory examination or inspection wordnet
3. 3
   A cursory inspection or survey.

   "My GP gave me the once-over and said it was merely a cold."

Synonyms

All synonyms

look-overonce-over-lightly

Example

More examples

"A woman is giving a book a quick once-over."

Etymology

From the idea of going over something once.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.