seek out

English

Etymology

From Middle English seken out, sechen out (“to seek out”), dissimilated from Middle English *outseken, outsechen (“to seek out”). More at outseek.

Verb

seek out (third-person singular simple present seeks out, present participle seeking out, simple past and past participle sought out)

1. (transitive) To try to locate; to search for.
   • 1953 June, C. E. N. Watts, “Railway Through Lapland”, in Railway Magazine, page 384:

     At the head of the fiord, and along its sides, can still be seen the hulks of German destroyers and submarines. These sought shelter in this secluded spot, but the British Navy sought them out and sank them.

   • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Some of us order far more than we need online. Some of us are so deep in the countryside that delivery vans must divert their routes to seek us out.

   • 2022 October 22, Maureen Dowd, “Ralph Fiennes, Master of Monsters”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     Ralph still seeks out physical release. Like Moses, he does his best thinking when he’s swimming. “I think challenging yourself physically is a great way of getting all the crap out of your head,” he said.

Synonyms

• forseek
• hunt down
• track down

Translations

to try to locate

• Italian: ricercare (it), scovare (it)

Anagrams

• ekes out, outseek