Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To come upon, often by accident; meet with.
  • intransitive verb To come upon or discover by searching or making an effort.
  • intransitive verb To discover or ascertain through observation, experience, or study.
  • intransitive verb To perceive to be, after experience or consideration.
  • intransitive verb To experience or feel.
  • intransitive verb To recover (something lost).
  • intransitive verb To recover the use of; regain.
  • intransitive verb To succeed in reaching; arrive at.
  • intransitive verb To obtain or acquire by effort.
  • intransitive verb To decide on and make a declaration about.
  • intransitive verb To furnish; supply.
  • intransitive verb To bring (oneself) to an awareness of what one truly wishes to be and do in life.
  • intransitive verb To perceive (oneself) to be in a specific place or condition.
  • intransitive verb To come to a legal decision or verdict.
  • noun The act of finding.
  • noun Something that is found, especially an unexpectedly valuable discovery.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To discover by sight or feeling; come or light upon, either by seeking or unexpectedly; encounter or meet with for the first time.
  • To discover by methodical means; ascertain or make out by systematic exploration, trial, or study: as, to find bottom by sounding; to find a bullet in a wound by probing; an effort to find the philosopher's stone; to find one's way in the dark; to find the answer to a problem.
  • To discover the use of, or the way to make or use; invent; devise.
  • To discover or ascertain by experience; learn from observation or sensation: as, the climate was found to be unpropitious; to find a friend in a supposed enemy.
  • To succeed in attaining; gain by effort: as, to find leisure for a visit; to find safety in flight.
  • To come to or into by natural causes or by force of circumstances; arrive at; reach: as, water finds its level; the picture found its way to the auction-room.
  • To detect; catch: commonly with out. See to find out, below.
  • In law, to determine after judicial inquiry: as, the jury found him guilty; to find a verdict for the plaintiff.
  • To supply; provide; furnish: as, to find money or provisions for an expedition.
  • To support; maintain; provide for: followed by the direct object of the person (often reflexive), with in, formerly also with, before the thing provided: as, to receive ten dollars a week and find one's self.
  • To compose; set in order; arrange.
  • To reach home to; take the fancy of; appeal to the taste or liking of.
  • See def. 10.
  • In law, to determine an issue after judicial inquiry; direct judgment on the merits or facts of a case: as, the jury finds for the plaintiff.
  • To discover scent or game: said of dogs in the field.
  • noun A discovery of something valuable; the thing found: as, a find in the gold-fields; finds of prehistoric tools. The use of find as a noun has become common only since its application in recent times to discoveries of archæological remains.

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

  • intransitive verb (Law) To determine an issue of fact, and to declare such a determination to a court.
  • noun Anything found; a discovery of anything valuable; especially, a deposit, discovered by archæologists, of objects of prehistoric or unknown origin.
  • transitive verb To meet with, or light upon, accidentally; to gain the first sight or knowledge of, as of something new, or unknown; hence, to fall in with, as a person.
  • transitive verb To learn by experience or trial; to perceive; to experience; to discover by the intellect or the feelings; to detect; to feel.
  • transitive verb To come upon by seeking.
  • transitive verb To discover by sounding.
  • transitive verb To discover by study or experiment direct to an object or end.
  • transitive verb To gain, as the object of desire or effort.
  • transitive verb To attain to; to arrive at; to acquire.
  • transitive verb To provide for; to supply; to furnish
  • transitive verb To arrive at, as a conclusion; to determine as true; to establish
  • transitive verb to detect (a thief); to discover (a secret) -- to solve or unriddle (a parable or enigma); to understand.
  • transitive verb to blame; to censure.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English finden, from Old English findan; see pent- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English findan, from Proto-Germanic *finþanan (compare Dutch vinden, German finden, Swedish finna), a secondary verb from Proto-Indo-European *pontHo- (compare Old Irish étain 'I find', áitt 'place', Latin pōns 'bridge', Ancient Greek póntos 'sea', Old Armenian հուն (hun, "ford"), Avestan pantā (gen. paþō), Sanskrit pánthās 'path').

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Examples

  • PetrusTherefore, within probably 4-6 months after stepping on the major sites, Vivendi would find itself faced with an operation that it wouldn't be able to *find*, much less shut down.

    One Lawsuit to Rule Them All 2004

  • Therefore, within probably 4-6 months after stepping on the major sites, Vivendi would find itself faced with an operation that it wouldn't be able to *find*, much less shut down.

    One Lawsuit to Rule Them All 2004

  • If you use the MasterPage, the best way to find the client behavior is using the BehaviorID as the $find method's parameter:

    ASP.NET Forums Christianpmg 2010

  • The $find ( "behaviorid") is to find the SliderShow's client behavior, if you debug the script, you will find there are many useful UIs and client functions to operate it.

    ASP.NET Forums 2009

  • SendMessage, EM_SCROLLCARET: = 0xB7, 0, 0, Edit2, ahk_id % ControlID% offset: = pos + addToPos + Strlen (find) lastFind = % find% hits++

    AutoHotkey Community 2009

  • Under ´Utilities´ you will find quotations, resequencing exercises and ´find the missing word´ passages.

    20 Newest Free Software Downloads - Freeware Files.com 2009

  • If you've created the component you're able to use $find function to find it.

    ASP.NET Forums 2009

  • If you find her— "He reined around to the open, where he had his choice of Reidi's attendants, and called back:" —find me at their headquarters! "

    2005 Cherryh, C. J. 2005

  • JAVASCRIPT to find panel function ExpandPanel () {alert ($find ( "cpUserAcess"));

    ASP.NET Forums arpitaoberoi 2010

  • I find a Javascript source to do that: var index = $find ( 'TabContainer1'). get_activeTabIndex (); if (index = = 0) {

    ASP.NET Forums MeTaLCaM 2009

  • But similar laws, described by gun industry lobbyists as “Find” laws, or firearm industry nondiscriminatory legislation, are now working their way through at least 10 statehouses, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

    How Texas punishes companies who ‘discriminate’ against gun manufacturers | Robert Reich Robert Reich 2022

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