search

n 1: the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find

something or someone [syn: {searching}, {hunt}, {hunting}]

2: an investigation seeking answers; "a thorough search of the

ledgers revealed nothing" or "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: {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: {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: {look}]

3: inquire into [syn: {research}, {explore}]

4: subject to a search; "The police searched the suspect"; "We

searched the whole house for the missing keys"