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I am reading the book " A higher loyalty" by James Comey. One of the chapter describes how he was taunted in the school. I am not sure what exactly he meant saying the following " One of my first days on the fifth-grade playground, I was surrounded by a group of boys who taunted me and my looks". My looks in the dictionary appears to be - appearance , better suggestions ?

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I agree with your understanding - "looks" is often used to describe someone's physical appearance.

The only thing that makes your example sentence a little odd is that it says:

...a group of boys who taunted me and my looks.

It doesn't seem gramatically correct to me because your appearance is something abstract, so how can it be taunted?

If I was writing this sentence I would have said:

...a group of boys who taunted me for my looks.

or

...a group of boys who mocked me and my looks.

("Mock" means to ridicule, or laugh at, and you can laugh at the way someone looks; but "taunt" means to incite anger, to persecute, or provoke - and your looks are not going to get angry)

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    it is copy/paste from the book :)
    – THEGreatGatsby
    Jul 6, 2018 at 11:27
  • @THEGreatGatsby Books can be wrong! Just my opinion. I just added a bit more info to back that thought up.
    – Astralbee
    Jul 6, 2018 at 11:29
  • thanks, it helps me a lot ! Will come back soo. with more questions :)
    – THEGreatGatsby
    Jul 6, 2018 at 11:33

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