behold, discern, inspect, see, view, contemplate, gaze, regard, stare, watch. descry, glance, scan, survey,
To _see_ is simply to become conscious of an object of vision; to _look_ is to make a conscious and direct endeavor to _see_. To _behold_ is to fix the sight and the mind with distinctness and consideration upon something that has come to be clearly before the eyes. We may _look_ without _seeing_, as in pitch-darkness, and we may _see_ without _looking_, as in case of a flash of lightning. To _gaze_ is to _look_ intently, long, and steadily upon an object. To _glance_ is to _look_ casually or momentarily. To _stare_ is to _look_ with a fixed intensity such as is the effect of surprise, alarm, or rudeness. To _scan_ is to _look_ at minutely, to note every visible feature. To _inspect_ is to go below the surface, uncover, study item by item. _View_ and _survey_ are comprehensive, _survey_ expressing the greater exactness of measurement or estimate. _Watch_ brings in the element of time and often of wariness; we _watch_ for a movement or change, a signal, the approach of an enemy, etc. Compare APPEAR.
affection, charity, friendship, regard, attachment, devotion, liking, tenderness. attraction, fondness,
_Affection_ is kindly feeling, deep, tender, and constant, going out to some person or object, being less fervent and ardent than _love_, whether applied to persons or things. _Love_ is an intense and absorbing emotion, drawing one toward a person or object and causing one to appreciate, delight in, and crave the presence or possession of the person or object loved, and to desire to please and benefit the person, or to advance the cause, truth, or other object of _affection_; it is the yearning or outgoing of soul toward something that is regarded as excellent, beautiful, or desirable; _love_ may be briefly defined as strong and absorbing _affection_ for and _attraction_ toward a person or object. _Love_ may denote the sublimest and holiest spiritual _affection_ as when we are taught that "God is _love_." _Charity_ has so far swung aside from this original meaning that probably it never can be recalled (compare BENEVOLENCE). The Revised Version uses _love_ in place of _charity_ in _1 Cor._ xiii, and elsewhere. _Love_ is more intense, absorbing, and tender than _friendship_, more intense, impulsive, and perhaps passionate than _affection_; we speak of fervent _love_, but of deep or tender _affection_, or of close, firm, strong _friendship_. _Love_ is used specifically for personal _affection_ between the sexes in the highest sense, the _love_ that normally leads to marriage, and subsists throughout all happy wedded life. _Love_ can never properly denote mere animal passion, which is expressed by such words as appetite, desire, lust. One may properly be said to have _love_ for animals, for inanimate objects, or for abstract qualities that enlist the affections, as we speak of _love_ for a horse or a dog, for mountains, woods, ocean, or of _love_ of nature, and _love_ of virtue. _Love_ of articles of food is better expressed by _liking_, as _love_, in its full sense, expresses something spiritual and reciprocal, such as can have no place in connection with objects that minister merely to the senses. Compare ATTACHMENT; FRIENDSHIP.