Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To try to locate or discover; search for.
  • intransitive verb To endeavor to obtain or reach.
  • intransitive verb To go to or toward.
  • intransitive verb To inquire for; request.
  • intransitive verb To try; endeavor.
  • intransitive verb To make a search or investigation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To go in search or quest of; look or search for; endeavor to find: often followed by out.
  • To inquire for; ask for; solicit; desire or try to obtain.
  • To go to; resort to; have recourse to.
  • To aim at; pursue as an object; strive after; attempt: as, to seek a person's life or his ruin.
  • To try; endeavor: with an infinitive object.
  • To search; search through.
  • To look at; consult.
  • To go; proceed; resort; have recourse; apply: with to.
  • To search, or make search or inquiry.
  • (b ) At a loss; without knowledge, experience, or resources; helpless: used adjectively, usually with be.
  • A Middle English form of sick.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Sick.
  • intransitive verb To make search or inquiry; to endeavor to make discovery.
  • intransitive verb [Obs.] needing to seek or search; hence, unprepared.
  • intransitive verb to make pursuit of; to attempt to find or take.
  • intransitive verb to endeavor to find.
  • intransitive verb [Obs.] to apply to; to resort to; to court.
  • intransitive verb [Obs.] to make strict inquiry after; to follow up; to persecute.
  • transitive verb To go in search of; to look for; to search for; to try to find.
  • transitive verb To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
  • transitive verb To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
  • transitive verb To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To try to find, to look for, to search.
  • verb transitive To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
  • verb transitive To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
  • verb intransitive, obsolete To go, move, travel (in a given direction).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb go to or towards
  • verb inquire for
  • verb make an effort or attempt
  • noun the movement of a read/write head to a specific data track on a disk
  • verb try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of
  • verb try to get or reach

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sechen, seken, from Old English sēcan; see sāg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English seken (also sechen), from Old English sēċan ("to seek; try to find, to look for, make search for; try to get; strive to effect, aim at, strive after; seek after, try to provide for; try to find out by investigation or examination; enquire about; try to learn by asking, ask, ask for, inquire; look to for, expect from; visit, go to; resort to; go, move, proceed; approach, attain to; attack, pursue, follow"), with influence from Old Norse sœkja, whence the hard /k/ sound (compare beseech); both from Proto-Germanic *sōkijanan (“to seek”) (compare West Frisian sykje, Dutch zoeken, German suchen, Danish søge). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to seek out”).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word seek.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.