find

Noun

• the act of discovering something

• a productive insight

Verb

• accept and make use of one's personality, abilities, and situation
  • My son went to Berkeley to find himself
    

• succeed in reaching; arrive at
  • The arrow found its mark
    

• get or find back; recover the use of
  • She regained control of herself
    
  • She found her voice and replied quickly
    

• perceive oneself to be in a certain condition or place
  • I found myself in a difficult situation
    
  • When he woke up, he found himself in a hospital room
    

• receive a specified treatment (abstract)
  • These aspects of civilization do not find expression or receive an interpretation
    
  • His movie received a good review
    
  • I got nothing but trouble for my good intentions
    

• decide on and make a declaration about
  • find someone guilty
    

• obtain through effort or management
  • She found the time and energy to take care of her aging parents
    
  • We found the money to send our sons to college
    

• make a discovery
  • She found that he had lied to her
    
  • The story is false, so far as I can discover
    

• make a discovery, make a new finding
  • Roentgen discovered X-rays
    
  • Physicists believe they found a new elementary particle
    

• get something or somebody for a specific purpose
  • I found this gadget that will serve as a bottle opener
    
  • I got hold of these tools to fix our plumbing
    
  • The chairman got hold of a secretary on Friday night to type the urgent letter
    

• perceive or be contemporaneous with
  • We found Republicans winning the offices
    
  • You'll see a lot of cheating in this school
    
  • The 1960's saw the rebellion of the younger generation against established traditions
    
  • I want to see results
    

• come to believe on the basis of emotion, intuitions, or indefinite grounds
  • I feel that he doesn't like me
    
  • I find him to be obnoxious
    
  • I found the movie rather entertaining
    

• establish after a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study
  • find the product of two numbers
    
  • The physicist who found the elusive particle won the Nobel Prize
    

• come upon after searching; find the location of something that was missed or lost
  • Did you find your glasses?
    
  • I cannot find my gloves!
    

• discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of
  • She detected high levels of lead in her drinking water
    
  • We found traces of lead in the paint
    

• come upon, as if by accident; meet with
  • We find this idea in Plato
    
  • I happened upon the most wonderful bakery not very far from here
    
  • She chanced upon an interesting book in the bookstore the other day
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  discovery , uncovering , breakthrough , find oneself , recover , retrieve , regain , receive , get , obtain , incur , rule , discover , line up , get hold , come up , witness , see , feel , determine , find out , ascertain , detect , observe , notice , happen , chance , bump , encounter