Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to have a strong negative opinion of, to behave in an outrageous manner towards.

1845

J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 88: Keep the children outen the way [...] ’ef you don’t, Cap’em Suggs will whip ’em all. He’s a sight on children and people what’s got yaller jaunders!

to place the thumb against the nose and close all the fingers except the little one, which is agitated as a token of derision.

1702		Eng. Theophrastus, ‘Frontispiece’ in N&Q Ser. 5 III 298: [...] four little satyrs, one of whom is taking a single sight, or making ‘a nose’ at the lady; whilst a second is taking a double sight, or ‘long nose,’ towards the spectator [F&H].
1835		‘Take a Sight!’ in Rumcodger’s Coll. in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 243: Take a sight! take a sight! take a sight, o! / Both of you may brush, for it will not do.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 30: Sight, take a – a manner of expressing contempt or ridicule, by putting the thumb to the nose, with the fingers straight in the air.
1836		T. Hook Gilbert Gurney 156: She proceeded to place her two hands extended in a right line from the tip of her nose in the direction of his lordship’s seat, after the fashion of what is called ‘taking a double sight’ .
1840		E. Howard Jack Ashore I 308: The taking of a sight had not yet prevailed [...] in the present classical costermonger style; but Jack [...] made an intelligible action of contempt.
1844		H. Christmas in Pegge Anecdotes of the Eng. Lang. 299: ‘But to his nose he clapped his thumb, / And spread his fingers out.’ This is called by the Cockney, ‘taking a sight’, by the Manchester man, ‘doing snooks’.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 June 3/2: Thomas got up the cliffs like a goat, and bid him take ‘a 'sight’.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Feb. 3/4: He handed the Governor to the boat with one hand, while he very dexterously ‘look a sight’ with thc other.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 30: Mr. Frank Curtis had applied his right hand to his nose, and extended it in a fan-like form – or, in other words, he ‘took a sight’ at the learned Commissioner, and worked an imaginary coffee-mill at the same time with his left hand.
1859		Sussex Advertiser 13 Sept. 7/1: A popular lecturer on astronomy often invited his pupils, telescope in hand, to take a sight at the moon and stars [...] his schoolboy auditory [...] frequently ‘took a sight’ with that gesture of out stretched arms and adjustment to the nose and eye.
1864		Sydney Morn. Herald 6 Sept. 3/4: [from Cornhill, London] [T]his he did, it is reported, by applying his thumb to his nose, so making a sign, that in street slang is called ‘taking a sight’.
1871		Morning Advertiser 11 Sept. n.p.: The fame of mighty Nelson shall not with his compare, Who... thrusts his tongue into his cheek, and takes a sight at Death [F&H].
1886		Household Words 2 Oct. 453: [This] peculiar action has, I believe, almost invariably been described as taking a sight. A solicitor, however, in a recent policed case at Manchester, described it as pulling bacon [F&H].
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 163: To cock (1702) or more usually today to pull a snook ( =nose), to make a gesture of derision by applying the thumb to the nose and extending the fingers [...] known also ( [...] as taking a sight, working the coffee-mill, taking a grinder, pulling bacon, making a long nose and making Queen Anne’s fan.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 340: ‘Nose-thumbing’ [...] ‘cocking a snook’, or ‘taking a sight’ used, between the wars, to be demonstrated by every child in the country.

(US campus) a good–looking man.

1984		Eble Campus Sl. Sept.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 42: Examples of rhyme from college slang are [...] sight delight ‘good–looking male’.

(UK Und.) the crowd that gathers round illicit street traders or gamblers.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 201: Sightseers Card sharps’ term for the ‘hedge’ or crowd of members of the public around the action of a three-card trick conspiracy, each such undecided person being regarded as a potential ‘mug’.

see separate entries.

1. to look at.

1934

P. Allingham Cheapjack 190: Take sights. Screw th’ donah’s groinies.

2. (UK Und.) to appraise for the purposes of robbery.

1961

(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 55: It usually took a few days of careful stalking and lying around under rhodedenron bushes [...] This was what we called ‘taking sights’ on a house.