find out

find out

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

find out (third-person singular simple present finds out, present participle finding out, simple past and past participle found out)

1. (idiomatic) To discover, as by asking or investigating.

   I don't know who the twenty-first president of the United States was, but it should be very easy to find out.

   • 1912, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World‎:

     "Why shouldn't somethin' new and wonderful lie in such a country? And why shouldn't we be the men to find it out?"

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     I haven't booked, so I don't have a clue as to whether the service will be busy or not. Supposedly, reservations are compulsory, but I want to find out what would happen if you just turn up.

2. To discover or expose (someone) as disobedient, dishonest, etc.

   He had been fiddling the books for years, but finally he was found out.

3. To uncover a weakness in (someone).

   He may cope with the multiple choice questions, but the written exam will find him out.

   If you don't try, you do not find it out.

Derived terms

• fuck around and find out

Translations

to discover

Afrikaans: uitvind (af) Azerbaijani: öyrənmək (az) Catalan: esbrinar (ca), descobrir (ca) Cherokee: ᎠᏕᎶᎰᏍᎦ (adelohosga) Chinese: Mandarin: 找出 (zh) (zhǎochū), 查明 (zh) (chámíng), 發現／发现 (zh) (fāxiàn), 調查／调查 (zh) (diàochá) Czech: zjistit (cs) Danish: finde ud af, undersøge Dutch: ontdekken (nl), onderzoeken (nl), uitvinden (nl) Esperanto: sciiĝi Finnish: saada selville, selvittää (fi) French: découvrir (fr), savoir (fr), apprendre (fr), se renseigner (fr) German: herausfinden (de), erfahren (de) Gothic: 𐌿𐍆𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (ufkunnan) Greek: Ancient: πυνθάνομαι (punthánomai), ἐξευρίσκω (exeurískō), ὁράω (horáō) (+indirect question) Hungarian: kitalál (hu), rájön (hu), megtud (hu) Icelandic: komast að, komast á snoðir um Italian: scoprire (it) Japanese: 見出す (ja) (みだす, midasu), 調べる (ja) (しらべる, shiraberu), 分かる (ja) (わかる, wakaru), 発見する (ja) (はっけんする, hakken-suru) Lao: ຊອກຮູ້ (sǭk hū) Latin: resciscō, experior, reperiō, comperiō, inveniō (la) Latvian: uzzināt Macedonian: дознава (doznava) Norwegian: finne ut Nynorsk: erfare Old English: āfindan Polish: dowiadywać się impf, dowiedzieć się pf, informować się impf, poinformować się pf Portuguese: descobrir (pt) Romanian: descoperi (ro), afla (ro) Russian: узнава́ть (ru) impf (uznavátʹ), узна́ть (ru) pf (uznátʹ), обнару́жить (ru) (obnarúžitʹ) Scottish Gaelic: faigh a-mach Slovak: zistiť, zisťovať Spanish: descubrir (es), averiguar (es), salir de dudas Swedish: ta reda på (sv) Turkish: anlamak (tr), ortaya çıkarmak (tr) Ukrainian: дізнаватися (diznavatysja), дізнатися (diznatysja), довідуватися (doviduvatysja), довідатися (dovidatysja) Yiddish: דערוויסן זיך‎ (dervisn zikh) Zazaki: fahm kerden, idrak kerden, ver veten

to expose as dishonest

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: please add this translation if you can Finnish: paljastua (fi) (subject is the person who is exposed), paljastaa (fi), huomata (fi), käräyttää (fi)

to uncover a weakness

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: please add this translation if you can Finnish: saada heikkous selville

Anagrams

• outfind