Link Centre Dictionary

find

UK/ˈfɑjnd/ US/ˈfaɪ̯nd/ very common
verb (16) noun (2)

verb

1.

come upon, as if by accident; meet with

  • “We find this idea in Plato”
  • “I happened upon the most wonderful bakery not very far from here”
  • “She chanced upon an interesting book in the bookstore the other day”
Synonyms
2.

discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of

  • “She detected high levels of lead in her drinking water”
  • “We found traces of lead in the paint”
Synonyms
3.

come upon after searching; find the location of something that was missed or lost

  • “Did you find your glasses?”
  • “I cannot find my gloves!”
Synonyms
Antonyms
4.

after a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study

  • “find the product of two numbers”
  • “The physicist who found the elusive particle won the Nobel Prize”
Synonyms
5.

come to believe on the basis of emotion, intuitions, or indefinite grounds

  • “I feel that he doesn”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms
6.

perceive or be contemporaneous with

  • “We found Republicans winning the offices”
  • “You”
  • “;”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms
7.

get something or somebody for a specific purpose

  • “I found this gadget that will serve as a bottle opener”
  • “I got hold of these tools to fix our plumbing”
  • “The chairman got hold of a secretary on Friday night to type the urgent letter”
Synonyms
8.

make a discovery, make a new finding

  • “Roentgen discovered X-rays”
  • “Physicists believe they found a new elementary particle”
Synonyms
9.

make a discovery

  • “She found that he had lied to her”
  • “The story is false, so far as I can discover”
Synonyms
10.

obtain through effort or management

  • “She found the time and energy to take care of her aging parents”
  • “We found the money to send our sons to college”
11.

decide on and make a declaration about

  • “find someone guilty”
Synonyms
12.

receive a specified treatment (abstract)

  • “These aspects of civilization do not find expression or receive an interpretation”
  • “His movie received a good review”
  • “I got nothing but trouble for my good intentions”
Synonyms
13.

perceive oneself to be in a certain condition or place

  • “I found myself in a difficult situation”
  • “When he woke up, he found himself in a hospital room”
14.

get or find back; recover the use of

  • “She regained control of herself”
  • “She found her voice and replied quickly”
Synonyms
15.

succeed in reaching; arrive at

  • “The arrrow found its mark”
16.

accept and make use of one''s personality, abilities, and situation

  • “My son went to Berkeley to find himself”
Synonyms

noun

1.
2.

the act of discovering something

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English finden, from Old English findan, from Proto-West Germanic *finþan, from Proto-Germanic *finþaną, a secondary verb from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to go, pass; path bridge”). See also West Frisian fine, Low German finden, Dutch vinden, German finden, Danish finde, Norwegian Bokmål finne, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish finna; also English path, Old Irish étain (“I find”), áitt (“place”), Latin pōns (“bridge”), Ancient Greek πόντος (póntos, “sea”), Old Armenian հուն (hun, “ford”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬧𐬙𐬃 (paṇtā̊), Sanskrit पथ (pathá, “path”), Proto-Slavic *pǫtь. For the meaning development compare Proto-Slavic *najьti > Russian найти́ (najtí), akin to Proto-Slavic *jьti > идти́ (idtí); Russian находи́ть (naxodítʹ), нахо́дка (naxódka), akin to ход (xod), ходи́ть (xodítʹ).

Phrases

  • barn find
  • come to find out
  • even a blind pig can find an acorn
  • even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while
  • even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while
  • find a friendly bush
  • find a new gear
  • find another gear

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.