Forum: Editors/Reviewers Hangout

Or is it looking but not seeing?

If you can't see the wood for the trees, I'd say looking but not seeing.

AJ

The Merriam Webster Learners' Dictionary says the differences are related to your action and attention. "See" means to notice or become aware of someone or something by using your eyes. "Look" means to direct your eyes in a particular direction.

ETA: And of course you can use "see" without reference to your eyes, as in, "I see what you mean" because it's to become aware of something.

The expression is: Looking but not seeing. It means your eye's have seen something but the importance or reality of it hasn't fully registered on your brain. This is a common event when you look at something and it seems to be an ordinary everyday thing you recognise, but it isn't in reality. An example I see in a small field I often drive pass is people driving pass look at the field and quickly identify a bunch of waist high woolly covered animals eating the grass and think it's a small group of sheep, but it's only when you look closely or one of the two alpacas in the group raise their heads do you realise it's a group of sheep with two alpacas in it.

edit to add this paragraph: In short, it means to look at something and assign it to something mundane while not recognising (seeing) what it really is.

Hiding something in plain view utilises this effect of the human brain / eye mistaken coordination.

This is not to be confused with other visual issues like the thousand yard stare where people are emotionally overwhelmed by recent events and aren't registering what they're looking at while they just stare off into space.