english
1
general::
find
to get or see something that you have been searching for:
• Have you found your passport yet? • Police later found the car abandoned in a wood.
discover
to find something that was hidden or that people did not know about before:
• A second bomb has been discovered in south London.
locate
formal to find the exact position of something:
• The airline are still trying to locate my luggage. • Online maps make it easy to locate almost any place in the world.
come across something
to find something unexpectedly when you are not looking for it:
• I came across some old letters from my father in my drawer.
stumble on/across something
to find something unexpectedly, especially something very important:
• They may have stumbled across some vital evidence. • Completely by chance we had stumbled on the biggest hit of the year.
trace
to find someone or something that has disappeared, especially by a careful process of collecting information:
• She had given up all hope of tracing her missing daughter.
track somebody/something down
to find someone or something that is difficult to find by searching in different places:
• I’ve been trying to track down a book that’s out of print. • The police managed to track down the killer.
unearth
to find something that has been hidden or lost for a long time, by digging or searching for it:
• In 1796, a carved stone was unearthed near the burial mound.
Longman-Thesaurus
2
general::
find (sth) out
[ M ]
to get information about something because you want to know more about it, or to learn a fact or piece of information for the first time
• How did you find out about the party?
• The holiday was a complete surprise - I only found out about it the day before we left.
• [ + question word ]: I'll just go and find out what's going on outside.
• [ + that ]: Too late, she found out that the train had been cancelled., find sb out
[ M usually passive ]
to discover that someone has done something wrong
• He lived in dread of being found out.
Cambridge-Phrasal Verbs
3
general::
In addition to the idioms beginning with FIND, Also see GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND; HARD WAY (FIND OUT THE).
American Heritage Idioms
4
general::
verb
locate:
We must find our lost book.
verb
regard:
I find her charm irresistible.
Simple Definitions
5
general::
Phrase(s): find oneself
Fig. to discover what one’s talents and preferences are. • Bill did better in school after he found himself. • John tried a number of different jobs. He finally found himself when he became a cook.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
6
general::
noun ADJ. exciting, good, great, important, interesting, real, remarkable, significant, spectacular, startling The letters were a real find and James went on to publish two volumes of them. | small | lucky A lucky find in the Cotswolds is helping archaeologists discover what life was like in Roman Britain. | unexpected | stray Stray finds are more commonly discovered than whole new sites. | archaeological | medieval, prehistoric VERB + FIND discover, make, unearth prehistoric finds made in an unexplored cave | yield To date the site has yielded many interesting finds. | report I reported my find to the landowner.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary