search for

search for (someone or something)

To hunt, seek, or try to discover something. We've been searching for locations to shoot our new film. The border is always filled with refugees searching for a better future.
See also: search
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

search someone for something

to feel, touch, pat, frisk, or examine electronically a person's body, looking for something hidden underneath the clothes. The police searched the suspect for hidden weapons. The airport guard used an electronic instrument to search the passengers for weapons.
See also: search

search something for someone or something

to examine something, looking for someone or something. Everyone searched the house for little Wally, but he was not to be found. I searched all my coat pockets for the note, but I didn't find it.
See also: search

search for someone or something

to look very hard for someone or something. I searched for Ted everywhere, but he was already gone. I have searched for my glasses high and low.
See also: search
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

search for

v.
To conduct a thorough investigation for someone or something; seek someone or something: The police are searching for the missing student.
See also: search
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • search for (someone or something)
  • search out
  • search after
  • search after (someone or something)
  • search through
  • search through (something or some place)
  • searching
  • be like trying to find a needle in a haystack
  • like looking for a needle in a haystack
  • like looking for/trying to find a needle in a haystack
References in classic literature
Rachel now wanting to follow their lead, before we-called the servants together, and began the search for the stained dress.
The Moonstone
It was large enough to permit the passage of his body, and assured as he was that Lady Greystoke had passed out through the aperture in an attempt to escape the village, he lost no time in availing himself of the same avenue; but neither did he lose time in a fruitless search for Jane Clayton.
He confined his attentions to a careful search for the pouch, but nowhere upon or about the corpse was any sign of the missing article or its contents.
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
This nephew, whose name was Pennifeather, would listen to nothing like reason in the matter of "lying quiet," but insisted upon making immediate search for the "corpse of the murdered man.
In the meantime, I instituted a rigorous private search for the corpse of Mr.
Poems
Would she go on down the river, that she might thus bring herself nearer her own Grabritin, or would she have sought to search for us upstream, where she had seen us last?
The Lost Continent
When the second prince had thus been gone a long time, the youngest son said he would go and search for the Water of Life, and trusted he should soon be able to make his father well again.
Fairy Tales
Nay,' as the lama made some sort of protest, 'remember this is my Search - the Search for my Red Bull.
Kim
We were now fairly well equipped for our search for a pass to the opposite side of the Mountains of the Clouds.
Pellucidar
Immediately seven great fleets, each of one hundred mighty war ships, had been dispatched to search for Dejah Thoris, and from these vessels two thousand smaller craft had been kept out continuously in futile search for the missing princess.
Princess of Mars
The house supplied him with a wafer for his present purpose, with which, having sealed his letter, he returned hastily towards the brook side, in order to search for the things which he had there lost.
The History of Tom Jones a Foundling
had been chartered by a syndicate of wealthy manufacturers, equipped with a laboratory and a staff of scientists, and sent out to search for some natural product which the manufacturers who footed the bills had been importing from South America at an enormous cost.
Son Of Tarzan
As the party were putting in for the shore shortly after noon to search for food a slender, naked savage watched them for a moment from behind the dense screen of verdure which lined the river's bank, then he melted away up-stream before any of those in the canoe discovered him.
The Beasts of Tarzan
The most eager factor in the search for Prince Richard was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whose affection for his royal nephew had always been so marked as to have been commented upon by the members of the King's household.
The Outlaw of Torn
That search for the aim of life had not merely disappeared temporarily- he felt that it no longer existed for him and could not present itself again.
War and Peace