Search Definition

search

English

Etymology

From Middle English serchen, from Anglo-Norman sercher, Old French cerchier, from Latin circare.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sûrch, IPA: /sɜː(r)tʃ/, SAMPA: /s3:(r)tS/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɜː(r)tʃ

Verb

search (third-person singular simple present searches, present participle searching, simple past and past participle searched)

1. (transitive) To look in (a place) for something.

   I searched the garden for the keys and found them in the vegetable patch.

2. (intransitive, followed by "for") To look thoroughly.

   The police are searching for evidence in his flat.

3. (transitive, now rare) To look for, seek.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vi:

     To search the God of loue, her Nymphes she sent / Throughout the wandring forrest euery where [...].

4. (transitive, obsolete) To probe or examine (a wound).
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I:

     ther they refresshed hem as wel as they myght, and made leches serche theyr woundys and sorowed gretely for the dethe of her peple [...].

   • 1588, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, II.3:

     Now to the bottome dost thou search my wound.

Synonyms

• (transitive: look throughout (a place) for something): comb, scour
• (intransitive: look thoroughly): look for, seek, comb, scour

Derived terms

Noun

search (plural searches)

1. An attempt to find something.

   With only five minutes until we were meant to leave, the search for the keys started in earnest.

2. The act of searching in general.

   Search is a hard problem for computers to solve efficiently

Translations

Related terms

• research

See also

• google
• look

Anagrams

• achers, Arches, arches, casher, chaser, eschar

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