search
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: sûrch
ipa: /sɜːt͡ʃ/
enpr: sûrch
ipa: /sɝt͡ʃ/
ipa: /sɑː(ɹ)t͡ʃ/
ipa: /sɛːrt͡ʃ/
ipa: /sɛrt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ
Forms: form: searches
form: searching
form: searched
form: searched
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: search
form: search
form: searched
form: search
form: searchest
form: searched
form: searchedst
form: searches
form: searcheth
form: searched
form: search
form: searched
form: search
form: searched
form: search
form: -
form: searching
form: searched
Etymology: From Middle English serchen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sercher, Old French cerchier, from Late Latin circō, circāre (“to circle; go around; search for”), from Latin circa, circus. Not related to German suchen, which is cognate with English seek.
Senses: examples: text: I searched the garden for the keys and found them in the vegetable patch.
glosses: To look in (a place) for something.
examples: text: The police are searching for evidence in his flat.
text: It sufficeth that they have once with care and fairness sifted the matter as far as they could, and searched into all the particulars.
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:
text: He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.[…]But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again[…]she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.
ref: 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:
text: Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.
ref: 2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68:
glosses: To look thoroughly.
raw_tags: followed by "for"
examples: text: To search the God of loue, her Nymphes she sent / Throughout the wandring forrest euery where[…].
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 34:11:
text: Anough is left besides to search and know.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: To look for, seek.
examples: text: I searched "Paris Hilton" and found lots of unflattering stories.
glosses: To put a phrase into a search engine, especially one besides Google.
examples: text: Now torne we to the xj kynges that retorned vnto a cyte that hyghte Sorhaute / the whiche cyte was within kynge Vryens / and ther they refresshed hem as wel as they myght / and made leches serche theyr woundys and sorowed gretely for the dethe of her peple
ref: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xvj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
text: Now to the bottome dost thou search my wound.
ref: c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
text: Thus when they all had sorowed their fill, / They softly gan to search his griesly wownd[…].
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: His wife perceiving him to droope and languish away, entreated him she might leasurely search and neerely view the quality of his disease[…].
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 35, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
glosses: To probe or examine (a wound).
glosses: To examine; to try; to put to the test.
Synonyms: sense: transitive: look throughout (a place) for something
word: comb
word: scour
sense: intransitive: look thoroughly
word: look for
word: seek
word: comb
Derived terms: sense: from verb and noun
word: binary search
sense: from verb and noun
word: body cavity search
sense: from verb and noun
word: breadth-first search
sense: from verb and noun
word: cavity search
sense: from verb and noun
word: consent search
sense: from verb and noun
word: depth-first search
sense: from verb and noun
word: fingertip search
sense: from verb and noun
word: fuzzy search
sense: from verb and noun
word: generalized search tree
sense: from verb and noun
word: global search and replace
sense: from verb and noun
word: house-search
sense: from verb and noun
word: human-flesh search
sense: from verb and noun
word: human flesh search engine
sense: from verb and noun
word: image search
sense: from verb and noun
word: in search of
sense: from verb and noun
word: iterative deepening search
sense: from verb and noun
word: jackstay search
sense: from verb and noun
word: jump point search
sense: from verb and noun
word: Levin search
sense: from verb and noun
word: literature search
sense: from verb and noun
word: organic search marketing
sense: from verb and noun
word: police search advisor
sense: from verb and noun
word: re-search
sense: from verb and noun
word: search and replace
sense: from verb and noun
word: search and rescue
sense: from verb and noun
word: search as you type
sense: from verb and noun
word: search box
sense: from verb and noun
word: search engine
sense: from verb and noun
word: search-engine-friendly
sense: from verb and noun
word: search engine optimization
sense: from verb and noun
word: searcher
sense: from verb and noun
word: search for
sense: from verb and noun
word: search-fu
sense: from verb and noun
word: search leakage
sense: from verb and noun
word: searchless
sense: from verb and noun
word: search-light
sense: from verb and noun
word: searchlight
sense: from verb and noun
word: search me
sense: from verb and noun
word: search-oriented architecture
sense: from verb and noun
word: search out
sense: from verb and noun
word: search party
sense: from verb and noun
word: search space
sense: from verb and noun
word: search term
sense: from verb and noun
word: search tree
sense: from verb and noun
word: search up
sense: from verb and noun
word: search wand
sense: from verb and noun
word: search warrant
sense: from verb and noun
word: solution in search of a problem
sense: from verb and noun
word: soul-search
sense: from verb and noun
word: soul search
sense: from verb and noun
word: stop-and-search
sense: from verb and noun
word: stop and search
sense: from verb and noun
word: strip-search
sense: from verb and noun
word: strip search
sense: from verb and noun
word: tabu search
sense: from verb and noun
word: Terry search
sense: from verb and noun
word: warrantless search
sense: from verb and noun
word: wordsearch
Related terms: google
look