view

Etymology

From Middle English vewe, from Anglo-Norman vewe, from Old French veue f (French vue f), feminine past participle of veoir (“to see”) (French voir). Cognate with Italian vedere, as well as Portuguese and Spanish ver. Doublet of veduta. Doublet of vista.

noun

1. (physical) Visual perception.
   1. The act of seeing or looking at something.
      He changed seats to get a complete view of the stage.
      , Book II, Chapter XXI Objects near our view are apt to be thought greater than those of a larger size are more remote.
      But Richmond […] appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw, peeping around the massive silver epergne that almost obscured him from her view, that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either. 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax
   2. The range of vision.
      If there are any rabbits in this park, they keep carefully out of our view.
   3. Something to look at, such as scenery.
      My flat has a view of a junkyard.
      the view from a window
      'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view. 1799, Thomas Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope
   4. (Internet) An individual viewing of a web page or a video etc. by a user.
   5. (obsolete) Appearance; show; aspect.
      [Graces] which, by the splendor of her view / Dazzled, before we never knew. c. 1648, Edmund Waller, The Night-Piece
2. A picture, drawn or painted; a sketch.
   a fine view of Lake George
3. An opinion, judgement, imagination, idea or belief.
   1. A mental image.
      I need more information to get a better view of the situation.
   2. A way of understanding something, an opinion, a theory.
      Your view on evolution is based on religious doctrines, not on scientific findings.
      There hasn’t been much polling data on consumer views of gene-edited foods, because they are still so new. May 30 2019, Karen Weintraub, “Crispr gene-editing will change the way Americans eat – here's what's coming”, in The Guardian
   3. A point of view.
      From my view that is a stupid proposition.
   4. An intention or prospect.
      He smuggled a knife into prison with a view to using it as a weapon.
      No man ever sets himself about anything but upon some view or other which serves him for a reason for what he does
      With this view, they made a Guy Faux, or dummy figure of a boy, dressed in coat and cap; such as might in a poor light be mistaken for a living figure. 1903, Henry Kelsall Aspinall, Birkenhead and Its Surroundings, page 116
4. (computing, databases) A virtual or logical table composed of the result set of a query in relational databases.
5. (computing, programming) The part of a computer program which is visible to the user and can be interacted with
6. A wake.

verb

1. (transitive) To look at.
   The video was viewed by millions of people.
   Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much. 2013-06-14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18
2. (transitive) To regard in a stated way.
   I view it as a serious breach of trust.