INDEX:
1. to find someone or something that is lost
2. to find something you need or want
3. difficult to find
4. to find a place you are trying to get to
5. to find something new and important
6. to unexpectedly find something that you were not looking for
7. something you find
RELATED WORDS
opposite
↑ LOSE
see also
↑ LOOK FOR
↑ FIND OUT
↑ INVENT
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1. to find someone or something that is lost
▷ find /faɪnd/ [transitive verb]
to find someone or something that you have lost :
▪ I’ve looked everywhere, but I can’t find my sunglasses.
▪ Have you found your passport yet?
▪ The murder weapon was found outside the house.
▪ Luis was gone, and she had no way of ever finding him again.
▷ turn up /ˌtɜːʳn ˈʌp/ [intransitive phrasal verb]
if something that is lost turns up, someone finds it later in a place where they did not expect it to be :
▪ Don’t worry about your earrings - I’m sure they’ll turn up sooner or later.
▪ Have those files turned up yet?
▷ trace /treɪs/ [transitive verb]
to find someone or something by a careful process of asking a lot of people for information :
▪ Police are trying to trace a red van, which several witnesses reported seeing near the scene of the crime.
▪ The cash was eventually traced to a prominent Paris lawyer.
▪ Philips hired a private detective to trace his daughter, who had been missing for two months.
▷ track down /ˌtræk ˈdaʊn/ [transitive phrasal verb]
to find someone or something that is difficult to find, by searching or by making inquiries in several different places :
track down somebody/something
▪ The police have had a difficult time tracking down Corbin.
▪ I have copies of the documents but haven’t managed to track down the originals.
▪ The president vowed to track down those responsible for the bombing.
track somebody/something down
▪ It took Alvin quite a while to track her down, but he eventually found her.
2. to find something you need or want
▷ find /faɪnd/ [transitive verb]
to find something that you need, such as a job or a place to live :
▪ I really need to find a better job.
▪ It took us half an hour to find somewhere to park.
▪ Jenny found an apartment in Brooklyn.
▷ locate /ləʊˈkeɪtǁˈləʊkeɪt/ [transitive verb not in passive] formal or written
to find out where something is - used especially in official or technical contexts :
▪ Investigators searched through the plane’s wreckage for several hours before locating the flight recorder.
▪ If you have difficulty locating a particular book, please ask one of the librarians for assistance.
location /ləʊˈkeɪʃ ə n/ [uncountable noun]
▪ Techniques for the location of tumours have improved greatly over the last twenty years.
▷ dig out /ˌdɪg ˈaʊt/ [transitive phrasal verb] especially British
to find something you have not seen for a long time, or that may not be easy to find, especially in order to give it to someone who has asked for it :
dig out something
▪ It seems like every time Grandma comes over we have to dig out the family photos.
▪ I took the opportunity to dig out a few facts and figures about this remote island.
dig something/it/them out
▪ I have her address somewhere -- I’ll dig it out for you when I get time.
3. difficult to find
▷ be difficult to find/hard to find /biː ˌdɪfɪk ə lt tə ˈfaɪnd, ˌhɑːʳd tə ˈfaɪnd/ [verb phrase]
if someone or something that you need is difficult to find or hard to find, you cannot easily find them because there are not many of them or they are well hidden :
▪ Taxis are hard to find at that time of night.
▪ What we wanted was a house with a big garden -- something that was difficult to find in the middle of a city.
▷ elusive /ɪˈluːsɪv/ [adjective]
an elusive person or animal is difficult to find, often because they do not want to be found :
▪ The gray fox is a very shy elusive creature.
▪ A cure for the disease has proven to be elusive.
▪ We repeatedly tried to contact the manager, an elusive man who was never in his office.
4. to find a place you are trying to get to
▷ find /faɪnd/ [transitive verb]
to find a place that you are trying to go to :
▪ Did you manage to find the house without too much trouble?
be easy to find
▪ The Blue Moon is easy to find: get off Highway 78 at 23rd Avenue and go right.
▷ find your way /ˌfaɪnd jɔːʳ ˈweɪ/ [verb phrase]
to get to a place by finding the right way to go :
▪ I couldn’t find my way out of the building.
find your way to
▪ It was my first visit to New York, but I managed to find my way to their apartment without any problem.
find your own way
find your way without anyone’s help
▪ Thanks, it’s not necessary for you to get up. I can find my own way out.
5. to find something new and important
▷ find /faɪnd/ [transitive verb]
to find something important that no one knew about before, especially information or a way of doing something :
▪ Medical researchers are determined to find a cure for cancer.
▪ It’s crucial that we find cleaner ways of generating electricity.
▪ Bodies up to 2,000 years old have been found buried in the peat bogs of central England.
▷ discover /dɪsˈkʌvəʳ/ [transitive verb]
to find an object, a substance, a place, information etc, that is important and that no one knew about before :
▪ The planet Pluto was discovered in 1930.
▪ Australian researchers have discovered a substance in coffee that acts like morphine.
▷ make a discovery /ˌmeɪk ə dɪsˈkʌv ə ri/ [verb phrase]
to find something important, interesting, or surprising that no one knew about before :
▪ Hawking made many discoveries about the nature of stars.
▪ Carlo Rubbia, who led the team of scientists that made the discovery, received the Nobel prize in 1984.
▪ Amazing discoveries have been made by anthropologists excavating in the Rift Valley.
▪ An important discovery was made by Mendel in the mid-nineteenth century.
▷ unearth /ʌnˈɜːʳθ/ [transitive verb]
to find something that was hidden or kept secret for a long time, especially information :
▪ Investigators have unearthed new evidence about the possible cause of the crash.
▪ The incredible story was unearthed by reporters at the ‘Post’.
▪ His research unearthed new information about the origins of the HIV virus.
▷ turn up /ˌtɜːʳn ˈʌp/ [transitive phrasal verb not usually in passive]
to find something interesting or useful, especially information, while you are searching carefully :
▪ After seven months on the case, the police failed to turn up any real clues.
▪ A thorough examination of the company’s account books turned up several interesting facts.
6. to unexpectedly find something that you were not looking for
▷ find/discover /faɪnd, dɪsˈkʌvəʳ/ [transitive verb not in progressive]
▪ We found a lovely seafood restaurant by the harbour.
▪ The body was discovered by a man walking his dog.
▪ It wasn’t until I got to university that I discovered poetry.
▷ come across /ˌkʌm əˈkrɒsǁ-ˈkrɔːs/ [transitive phrasal verb]
to find something unexpectedly when you are not looking for it but are doing something else :
▪ I came across an interesting news item in yesterday’s ‘Times’.
▪ Digging in the garden, she came across some pieces of bone.
▷ stumble on/across /ˈstʌmb ə l ɒn, əˌkrɒsǁ -əˌkrɔːs/ [transitive phrasal verb]
to find something by chance and unexpectedly, especially something that was secret or that no one knew before :
▪ The officers stumbled across the drugs when they stopped Moyers for a routine traffic violation.
▪ Fleming was carrying out other research when he stumbled on penicillin.
▪ Some people believe that Jenkins was murdered by government agents because he stumbled across a military secret.
▷ chance upon/happen upon /ˈtʃɑːns əˌpɒnǁ ˈtʃæns-, ˈhæpən əˌpɒn/ [transitive phrasal verb] written
to find a place or thing that you were not deliberately looking for, or meet someone you did not know you would meet, especially when you consider this a good or lucky thing to have happened :
▪ We happened upon a beautiful little hotel about an hour outside of Tours.
▪ I was walking home from the station when I happened upon Richard.
▪ Leafing through a magazine, I chanced upon a photo of an old high school friend, Robert Mason.
7. something you find
▷ discovery /dɪsˈkʌv ə ri/ [countable noun]
something important that has been found and that no one knew about before :
▪ Among the discoveries of the late nineteenth century were several new chemical elements, including radium.
▪ New archaeological discoveries prove the existence of an ancient civilization in the Indus Valley.
chance discovery
one that happens by chance
▪ The chance discovery of a blood-stained shirt led to the capture of the killer.
▷ be a real find /biː ə ˌrɪəl ˈfaɪnd/ [verb phrase]
if someone or something is a real find, you were lucky to find them because they are very good, useful, or interesting :
▪ That little Greek restaurant was a real find.
▪ Last month the club signed on a new player, Nate Tompkins, who has already proved to be a real find.