A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

see someone off • see someone out
see someone off —
1
. bid a person goodbye at an airport, train
station, etc.: The decks were crowded with voyagers and those
who had come to see those voyagers off. 2. (coll.) force a person
to go away: I know an audience of stuffed shirts when I see
one. Besides — I just had to see that pompous bastard off.
see someone out—
1
. take smb. to the door or exit: “Did you
leave your key with them?” “Yes; the maid who saw me out,
sea plane
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took it from the door.” 2. (euph.) survive a person: My dear
wife is, I fear, frail in health — though I trust and pray she
may see me out. 3. outlast smb. in a drinking contest: He
could see the Dundee people out any day, and walk home
afterwards without staggering.
see someone through • see through someone
see someone through —help smb. come through the difficul-
ties; give a person support until the end: Her thoughts flew
off to Ralph recalling with pleasure his promise to “see her
through.”
see through someone —understand the real nature and motives
of a person: The real reason he didn’t like her was because she
could see through him, and he knew it.
see something through • see through something
see something through —
1
. continue to work on smth. until
it is completed: I had taken on a task, and I was bound to see
it through. 2. see the whole of a film, play, etc.: I’d much
rather see the film through from the beginning, so let’s go to
the second showing.
see through something —understand the true nature of smth.;
not be deceived by smth.: My mother is a very astute woman:
she saw right through John’s seeming politeness.
See also: look something through / look through something.