I. ˈsēk verb
( sought ˈsȯt, usu -ȯd.+V ; sought ; seeking ; seeks )
Etymology: Middle English sechen, seken (past soughte, past participle sought ), from Old English sēcan (past sōhte, past participle gesōht ); akin to Old High German suohhen to seek (past suohta, past participle gisuohhit ), Old Norse sœkja (past sōtti, past participle sōttr ), Gothic sokjan to seek (past sokida, past participle sokiths ), sakan to quarrel, Latin sagire to perceive keenly, Greek hēgeisthai to go ahead, lead
transitive verb
1. obsolete : to follow or advance against in order to attack : pursue
of us must Pompey presently be sought, or else he seeks out us — Shakespeare
2. : to resort to : go to
for an hour everyone seeks the shade to rest — Richard Roche
departed for Rome which at that time was sought by American painters and sculptors — Charles de Kay
3.
a.
(1) : to go in search of : look for : search for
if management does decide to seek the man within the ranks of the company — Bruce Payne
seeking out keymen and awarding them fellowships — Bulletin of Meharry Medical College
(2) : to move or act so as to reach or arrive at
water seeks its own level
rockets designed to seek out and destroy with uncanny accuracy enemy bombers — H.W.Baldwin
b. : to try to discover
not all research is confined to seeking new chemicals — Monsanto Chemical Co. Annual Report
seek the truth
4. : to inquire for : ask for : entreat , request
his advice was sought by many of the party's leaders — H.J.Howland
5. : to try to acquire or gain : aim at
never held public office, nor did he ever seek it — W.C.Ford
teach the child to seek the good and to avoid the bad — Better Homes & Gardens
seek fame and fortune
6. : to make an attempt : try — used with an infinitive
all governments, of course, seek to keep the bulk of their people contented — D.M.Potter
7. archaic : to look through : explore
have I sought every country far and near — Shakespeare
intransitive verb
1. : to make a search or inquiry
seeking along the shelf for a volume — G.B.Shaw
2. archaic : to pay a visit : go , resort
wisdom's self oft seeks to sweet retired solitude — John Milton
3. archaic : to have recourse : make request : apply
to whom I seek for my medicine — Geoffrey Chaucer
4.
a. : to be sought or looked for
the connection between dress and war is not far to seek — Virginia Woolf
b. archaic : to be at a loss to know or act
for the details of our itinerary, I am all to seek — R.L.Stevenson
c. archaic : to be at a disadvantage
leave us wholly to seek in the art of political wagering — Jonathan Swift
5. : to retrieve killed game — used chiefly as a command to dogs
Synonyms:
search , hunt , rummage , ransack , scour , comb , ferret ( out ): seek is a general term meaning to look for; it lacks special connotation but may occasionally have a somewhat archaic suggestion
poor health compelled Webb to seek some more healthful climate — C.W.Mitman
the Poles have always sought the centers of heavy industry — American Guide Series: New York State
gaze sought the horizon — Ellen Glasgow
those who seek the harvest of the sea — Stuart Cloete
marched out to seek battle — C.H.Lanza
search usually implies a thorough, careful, sustained seeking or examining of a person, place, or thing
detectives search the arrested suspect
the summer was spent searching the Ozark region for the fabled seven cities — R.A.Billington
search the house from top to bottom for a lost ring
hunt implies a searching or questing after something elusive or well hidden and quite hard to find
hunt for a lost collar button
land speculators … reaped a quick fortune, and hunted for new bonanzas — American Guide Series: Minnesota
the strength to hunt out logical difficulties, antinomies, or paradoxes in our own views — M.R.Cohen
rummage implies the making of a usually sustained or thorough search or investigation in which things are disarranged, dislodged, or moved around
rummaged among the papers that cluttered up the high, old-fashioned desk — Hartley Howard
rummaged in the packs and announced gleefully that their contents were quite dry — John Buchan
ransack suggests a thorough search, especially of a container, room, or building, often done forcefully and with resulting disorder and sometimes for something stolen or for something to be pillaged or looted
each man ransacked his chest or seabag and unearthed trinkets of various kinds — H.A.Chippendale
St. John's Church … was ill-attended in the reaction following the Revolution, and was ransacked during the War of 1812 — American Guide Series: Virginia
scour means to make a very diligent search of (an area) omitting no part or section
scoured the coppices and woods and old quarries, so long as a blackberry was to be found — D.H.Lawrence
while scouring the countryside for fresh mounts — American Guide Series: Ind.
comb implies an examination, usually of territory, as thoroughgoing as the action of a fine comb passing through hair
state policemen combing the county for the escaped prisoners
comb London's teeming millions for him — Dorothy Sayers
comb the literature of mythology carefully — Martin Gardner
ferret ( out ) suggests searching out with keen crafty or shrewd, relentless determination
did remove the bulk of the tribe, but they could not ferret out every Indian — A.W.Long
spent hours trying to ferret out the true reasons for the crime
•
- seek after
II. noun
( -s )
obsolete : a hunting signal sounded on a horn