looking both ways
Checking for traffic
Looking both ways is the practice of checking for traffic in each direction before crossing a street—a fundamental safety habit taught to children.
The phrase extends figuratively to any situation requiring caution or consideration of multiple factors before proceeding: Before making that decision, I'd recommend looking both ways.
- crosswalkMarked street-crossing zone
- crossing guardPedestrian safety official
- streetPublic urban roadway
- trafficMovement along routes
- road safetyPreventing highway harm
oncoming traffic · safety · cautious · glancing · pedestrian · intersection · curb · careful · scanning · awareness · hesitation · crossing · sidewalk · vigilant · attentive · watchful · checking · alert
- pedestrian actionswalking, crossing, stopping, waiting, standing
- warinesscaution, wariness, guardedness, vigilance, watchfulness
- precautionscaution, double-checking, verifying, safety checks, checking mirrors
- simple tasksblinking, breathing, clapping, nodding, shrugging
general prudence
looking both waysthrowing caution to the wind
reckless abandon · negligence · impulsiveness · heedlessness
look, looks, looked, looker, lookers, looking, lookout, outlook, overlook