search
See also: Search
English
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.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sûrch, IPA(key): /sɜːt͡ʃ/
- (General American) enPR: sûrch, IPA(key): /sɝt͡ʃ/
- (dialectal, obsolete) IPA(key): /sɑː(ɹ)t͡ʃ/[1]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ
Noun
search (countable and uncountable, plural searches)
- An attempt to find something.
- 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
- At least eight people died, and officials expressed deep concerns that the toll would rise as more searches of homes were carried out.
- With only five minutes until we were meant to leave, the search for the keys started in earnest.
- 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
- The act of searching in general.
- 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
- 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.
- Search is a hard problem for computers to solve efficiently.
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Related terms
- research
Translations
an attempt to find something
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Verb
search (third-person singular simple present searches, present participle searching, simple past and past participle searched)
- (transitive) To look in (a place) for something.
- I searched the garden for the keys and found them in the vegetable patch.
- (intransitive, followed by "for") To look thoroughly.
- The police are searching for evidence in his flat.
- 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], OCLC 153628242:
- It sufficeth that they have once with care and fairness sifted the matter as far as they could, and searched into all the particulars.
- 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 491297620:
- 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.
- 2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68:
- 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.
- (transitive, now rare) To look for, seek.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- To search the God of loue, her Nymphes she sent / Throughout the wandring forrest euery where […].
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Ezekiel 34:11:
- For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- Anough is left besides to search and know.
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- (transitive, obsolete) To probe or examine (a wound).
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xvj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
- 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
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii]:
- Now to the bottome dost thou search my wound.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- Thus when they all had sorowed their fill, / They softly gan to search his griesly wownd […].
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 35, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- His wife perceiving him to droope and languish away, entreated him she might leasurely search and neerely view the quality of his disease […].
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- (obsolete) To examine; to try; to put to the test.
Conjugation
Conjugation of search
| infinitive | (to) search | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| present tense | past tense | ||
| 1st-person singular | search | searched | |
| 2nd-person singular | search, searchest† | searched, searchedst† | |
| 3rd-person singular | searches, searcheth† | searched | |
| plural | search | ||
| subjunctive | search | searched | |
| imperative | search | — | |
| participles | searching | searched | |
†Archaic or obsolete.
Synonyms
- (transitive: look throughout (a place) for something): comb, scour
- (intransitive: look thoroughly): look for, seek, comb, scour
Derived terms
- global search and replace
- search and replace
- search as you type
- searcher
- searchlight
- search up
- stop-and-search
- strip search
Translations
to search — see look, look for
to look throughout (a place) for something
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(followed by "for") to look thoroughly
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See also
- look
References
- Hall, Joseph Sargent (March 2, 1942), “1. The Vowel Sounds of Stressed Syllables”, in The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 4), New York: King's Crown Press, DOI:, →ISBN, § 12, page 42.
Anagrams
- Arches, Ascher, Rasche, Schaer, achers, arches, arsech, casher, chares, chaser, eschar, raches
Chinese
Etymology
From English search.
Pronunciation
Verb
search
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) to search on the Internet; to google
See also
- (clipping) ser (soe1)