search

- definition

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90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.

Thesaurus

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verb

/sɜrtʃ/

present tense
I/you/we/they	search
he/she/it	searches
present participle	searching
past tense	searched
past participle	searched

Related dictionary definitions

Metaphor

1
[intransitive/transitive] to try to find something or someone by looking carefully
After three days of searching, I gave up.
He searched his mind but couldn’t come up with the answer.
search for:
Detectives have been brought in to help search for clues.
search through:
Rescue teams are still searching through the wreckage for survivors.
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of search
2
[transitive] to carefully examine something or someone for something that is hidden
The police have arrested a man after searching his house.
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of search
3
[transitive] to use a computer to look for information, especially on the Internet
I got most of the answers by searching the Net.
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of search

phrase

search me
spoken
used for emphasizing that you do not know the answer to a question
“Why would he bother to lie about it?” “Search me.”
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of search

phrasal verbs

search out

Metaphor: search

Searching for something is like hunting an animal, or like one animal hunting another.

I’ve been hunting for that book all day.
The detectives were on their trail at once.
They managed to track down his childhood friends.
She was being hounded by photographers.
The police swooped as soon as the gang appeared.
He was rooting around in the desk.
She fished inside her bag for her wallet.
I trolled through the documents at the library.
We had been completely thrown off the scent.
There’s no point in sniffing around here: you won’t find anything.

Searching and discovering information is like finding it by digging or searching in the ground.

Let me know if you dig up/turn up anything about him. ♦ I unearthed some useful facts and figures. ♦ The facts only came to light after a long investigation. ♦ We left no stone unturned in our search for the truth. ♦ The book is a mine/goldmine of information. ♦ I think that this will prove a rich seam to mine for your research. ♦ It took me a long time to find it, but I finally struck gold/oil/pay dirt.

➡ knowledge, secret

This is the American English definition of search. View British English definition of search.

Change your default dictionary and thesaurus to British English.

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