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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SEARCH, v. t. serch
1. To look over or through for the purpose of finding something; to explore; to examine by inspection; as, to search the house for a book; to search the wood for a thief.
Send though men, that they may search the land of Canaan. Numbers 13.
2. To inquire; to seek for.
Enough is left besides to search and know. Milton.
3. To probe; to seek the knowledge of by feeling with instrument; as to search a wound.
4. To examine; to try. Psalms 139S
To search out, to seek till found, or to find by seeking; as, to search out truth.
Watts.
SEARCH, v.i. serch.
1. To seek; to look for; to make search.
Once more search with me. Shak.
2. To make inquiry; to inquire.
It suffices that they have once with care sifted the matter, and searched into all the particulars. Locke.
To search for, to look for; to seek; to find; as, to search for a gentleman now in the house. Shak.
SEARCH, n. serch.
1. A seeking or looking for something that is lost, or the place of which us unknown; with for or after; as a search for lost money; a search for mines of gold and silver; a search after happiness or knowledge.
2. Inquiry; a seeking. He spent his life in search of truth.
3. Quest; pursuit for finding.
Nor did my search of liberty begin, Till my black hairs were chang'd upon my chin. Dryden.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone [syn: search, hunt, hunting]
2: an investigation seeking answers; "a thorough search of the ledgers revealed nothing"; "the outcome justified the search"
3: an operation that determines whether one or more of a set of items has a specified property; "they wrote a program to do a table lookup" [syn: search, lookup]
4: the examination of alternative hypotheses; "his search for a move that would avoid checkmate was unsuccessful"
5: boarding and inspecting a ship on the high seas; "right of search" v
1: try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the missing man in the entire county" [syn: search, seek, look for]
2: search or seek; "We looked all day and finally found the child in the forest"; "Look elsewhere for the perfect gift!" [syn: search, look]
3: inquire into; "the students had to research the history of the Second World War for their history project"; "He searched for information on his relatives on the web"; "Scientists are exploring the nature of consciousness" [syn: research, search, explore]
4: subject to a search; "The police searched the suspect"; "We searched the whole house for the missing keys"

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Etymology: Middle English cerchen, from Anglo-French cercher, sercher to travel about, investigate, search, from Late Latin circare to go about, from Latin circum round about — more at circum- Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. to look into or over carefully or thoroughly in an effort to find or discover something: as a. to examine in seeking something <searched the north field> b. to look through or explore by inspecting possible places of concealment or investigating suspicious circumstances c. to read thoroughly ; check; especially to examine a public record or register for information about <search land titles> d. to examine for articles concealed on the person e. to look at as if to discover or penetrate intention or nature 2. to uncover, find, or come to know by inquiry or scrutiny — usually used with out intransitive verb 1. to look or inquire carefully <searched for the papers> 2. to make painstaking investigation or examination • searchable adjective • searcher noun • searchingly adverb II. noun Date: 15th century 1. a. an act of searching <a search for food> <go in search of help> b. an act of boarding and inspecting a ship on the high seas in exercise of right of search 2. obsolete a party that searches 3. power or range of penetrating; also a penetrating effect

U.S. Military Dictionary

1. An operation to locate an enemy force known or believed to be at sea. 2. A systematic reconnaissance of a defined area, so that all parts of the area have passed within visibility. 3. To distribute gunfire over an area in depth by successive changes in gun elevation.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. look through or go over thoroughly to find something. 2 tr. examine or feel over (a person) to find anything concealed. 3 tr. a probe or penetrate into. b examine or question (one's mind, conscience, etc.) thoroughly. 4 intr. (often foll. by for) make a search or investigation. 5 intr. (as searching adj.) (of an examination) thorough; leaving no loopholes. 6 tr. (foll. by out) look probingly for; seek out. --n. 1 an act of searching. 2 an investigation. Phrases and idioms: in search of trying to find. right of search a belligerent's right to stop a neutral vessel and search it for prohibited goods. search me! colloq. I do not know. search-party a group of people organized to look for a lost person or thing. search warrant an official authorization to enter and search a building. Derivatives: searchable adj. searcher n. searchingly adv. Etymology: ME f. AF sercher, OF cerchier f. LL circare go round (as CIRCUS)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Search Search, v. i. To seek; to look for something; to make inquiry, exploration, or examination; to hunt. Once more search with me. --Shak. It sufficeth that they have once with care sifted the matter, and searched into all the particulars. --Locke.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Search Search, n. [Cf. OF. cerche. See Search, v. t.] The act of seeking or looking for something; quest; inquiry; pursuit for finding something; examination. Thus the orb he roamed With narrow search, and with inspection deep Considered every creature. --Milton. Nor did my search of liberty begin Till my black hairs were changed upon my chin. --Dryden. Right of search (Mar. Law), the right of the lawfully commissioned cruisers of belligerent nations to examine and search private merchant vessels on the high seas, for the enemy's property or for articles contraband of war. Search warrant (Law), a warrant legally issued, authorizing an examination or search of a house, or other place, for goods stolen, secreted, or concealed. Syn: Scrutiny; examination; exploration; investigation; research; inquiry; quest; pursuit.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Search Search, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Searched; p. pr. & vb. n. Searching.] [OE. serchen, cerchen, OF. cerchier, F. chercher, L. circare to go about, fr. L. circum, circa, around. See Circle.] 1. To look over or through, for the purpose of finding something; to examine; to explore; as, to search the city. ``Search the Scriptures.'' --John v. 39. They are come to search the house. --Shak. Search me, O God, and know my heart. --Ps. cxxxix. 23. 2. To inquire after; to look for; to seek. I will both search my sheep, and seek them out. --Ezek. xxxiv. 11. Enough is left besides to search and know. --Milton. 3. To examine or explore by feeling with an instrument; to probe; as, to search a wound. 4. To examine; to try; to put to the test. To search out, to seek till found; to find by seeking; as, to search out truth. Syn: To explore; examine; scrutinize; seek; investigate; pry into; inquire.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(searches, searching, searched) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If you search for something or someone, you look carefully for them. The Turkish security forces have started searching for the missing men... Nonetheless there are signs that both sides may be searching for a compromise. VERB: V for n, V for n 2. If you search a place, you look carefully for something or someone there. Armed troops searched the hospital yesterday... She searched her desk for the necessary information... Relief workers are still searching through collapsed buildings looking for victims. VERB: V n, V n for n, V prep 3. A search is an attempt to find something or someone by looking for them carefully. There was no chance of him being found alive and the search was abandoned... Egypt has said there is no time to lose in the search for a Middle East settlement. N-COUNT: oft N for n 4. If a police officer or someone else in authority searches you, they look carefully to see whether you have something hidden on you. The man took her suitcase from her and then searched her... His first task was to search them for weapons. VERB: V n, V n for n 5. If you search for information on a computer, you give the computer an instruction to find that information. (COMPUTING) You can use a directory service to search for people on the Internet. VERB: V for n • Search is also a noun. He was doing a computer search of local news articles. N-COUNT 6. see also searching, strip-search 7. If you go in search of something or someone, you try to find them. Miserable, and unexpectedly lonely, she went in search of Jean-Paul... The law already denies entry to people in search of better economic opportunities. PHRASE: PHR after v, PHR n 8. You say 'search me' when someone asks you a question and you want to emphasize that you do not know the answer. (INFORMAL) CONVENTION [emphasis]

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

surch: Some peculiar senses are:

(1) In the books of Moses, especially in Nu, "searching out the land" means to spy out (raggel), to investigate carefully, to examine with a view to giving a full and accurate report on.

(2) When applied to the Scriptures, as in Ezr 4:15,19 (baqqer); Joh 5:39; 1Pe 1:11 (eraunao), it means to examine, to study out the meaning. In Ac 17:11, the Revised Version (British and American) substitutes "examining" for the "searched" of the King James Version. See SEARCHINGS.

(3) "Search out" often means to study critically, to investigate carefully, e.g. Job 8:8; 29:16; Ec 1:13; La 3:40; Mt 2:8; 1Co 2:10; 1Pe 1:10.

(4) When the word is applied to God's searching the heart or spirit, it means His opening up, laying bare, disclosing what was hidden, e.g. 1Ch 28:9; Ps 44:21; 139:1; Pr 20:27; Jer 17:10; Ro 8:27.

G. H. Gerberding

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Examine, explore, scrutinize, investigate, overhaul, sift, inspect, look into, search into, pry into, peer into. 2. Inquire after, seek, look for. 3. Probe. 4. Examine, try, test. II. v. n. 1. Seek, look, make search, hunt. 2. Inquire, make inquiry. III. n. Examination, inquiry, scrutiny, research, exploration, investigation, quest, pursuit, inspection, seeking.

Moby Thesaurus

analysis, angle for, ask for, beat, beat about for, beat the bushes, burrow, cast about, chase, check, chivy, comb, delve, delve for, delve into, dig, dig for, dig into, dog, domiciliary visit, dragnet, enquiry, examination, examine, exploration, explore, fan, fathom, fish for, follow, follow up, forage, frisk, give chase, go after, go gunning for, go into, go through, grub, gun for, hollo after, hound, house-search, hunt, hunt for, hunt up, hunting, indagate, inquire of, inquiry, inspect, inspection, investigate, look, look around, look at, look for, look into, look over, look round, look through, look up, make after, nose around, peer into, perquisition, perusal, plumb, poke, poke around, poke into, posse, probe, prosecute, prowl after, pry, pry into, pursual, pursuance, pursue, pursuing, pursuit, quest, quest after, raise the hunt, rake, ransack, ransacking, research, researching, root, rummage, run after, run down, scan, scour, scouring, scout out, scrimmage, scrutinize, scrutiny, search for, search into, search party, search through, search warrant, search-and-destroy operation, searching, see to, seek, seek for, seek out, seeking, shake down, sift, sifting, skirmish, smell around, sound, stalk, stalking, still hunt, still-hunt, study, take out after, try to find, turning over