Learn English – What does it mean to “look it”

phrasessense-verbs

What does the emphasized part of the following excerpt mean? It's from an edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

She had been assembled in orbit around the Earth, tested on a translunar maiden flight, and finally checked out in orbit above the Moon. She was a creature of pure space — and she looked it.

Best Answer

It is qualifying the preceding statement. It is saying that the ship is not only a "creature of pure space", but that it looks as though it is a creature of pure space.

This phrase is quite common (emphasis is mine):

He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers.
(From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
He was sick, he said, and he looked it.
(From Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain)
At this point, the door opened, and Mr. Bucket walked into the room. He was cold and tired, and he looked it. All day long, he had been working in the streets.
(From Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl)
He was a pedant, to the most extreme point, the greatest pedant I had met on earth, and with that had a vanity only befitting Alexander of Macedon. He was in love with every button on his coat, every nail on his fingers--absolutely in love with them, and he looked it!
(From Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky)

I love this one. The sentence invokes an image of the man being so overly proud of appearance!

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