Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An old preterit of find.
  • To seek (to do a thing); try; endeavor: followed by an infinitive.
  • To prove; test; examine.
  • To tempt; entice (to do evil).

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

  • imp. of find.

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

  • verb simple past of find.
  • verb transitive To seek (to do a thing); try; attempt; endeavour; make a shift.
  • verb transitive To test; examine; make a trial of; prove.
  • verb transitive To put someone through a trial; test; tempt; entice.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English fand, first and third-person singular preterite of Old English findan ("to find").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English fanden, fandien, from Old English fandian ("to try, attempt, tempt, test, examine, explore, search out, seek to know, experience, visit"), from Proto-Germanic *fandōnan (“to seek, inquire”), from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to come, go”). Cognate with North Frisian fanljien ("to visit"), Dutch dialectal vanden, German fahnden ("to search"). Related to find.

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