search
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-der.
Ancient Greek κίρκος (kírkos)bor.
Late Latin circus
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Italic *-āō
Late Latin -ō
Late Latin circō
Anglo-Norman sercherbor.
Middle English serchen
English search
Inherited from Middle English serchen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sercher, Old French cerchier, from Late Latin circō, ,circāre (“to circle; go around; search for”), from circus. Unrelated to German suchen, which is cognate with English seek.
Inflected forms:
form: searches
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: searches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: searching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: search
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: search
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: search
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: searchest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: searchedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: searches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: searcheth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: search
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: search
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: search
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: searching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: searched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: An attempt to find something.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: With only five minutes until we were meant to leave, the search for the keys started in earnest.
At least eight people died, and officials expressed deep concerns that the toll would rise as more searches of homes were carried out.
gloss: The act of searching in general.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Search is a hard problem for computers to solve efficiently.
Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much.
gloss: To look in (a place) for something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I searched the garden for the keys and found them in the vegetable patch.
gloss: To look thoroughly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The police are searching for evidence in his flat.
It sufficeth that they have once with care and fairness sifted the matter as far as they could, and searched into all the particulars.
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.
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.
gloss: To look for, seek.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: To search the God of loue, her Nymphes she sent / Throughout the wandring forrest euery where[…].
For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
Anough is left besides to search and know.
gloss: To put a phrase into a search engine, especially one besides Google.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I searched "Paris Hilton" and found lots of unflattering stories.
gloss: To probe or examine (a wound).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: 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
Now to the bottome dost thou search my wound.
Thus when they all had sorowed their fill, / They softly gan to search his griesly wownd[…].
His wife perceiving him to droope and languish away, entreated him she might leasurely search and neerely view the quality of his disease[…].
gloss: To examine; to try; to put to the test.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
Synonyms: scour
seek
comb
Related words: research
google
look
Translations: