search

1. the examination of a vessel by the right of search

2. Computing

a. a review of a file to locate specific information

b. (as modifier): a search routine

3. right of search International law the right possessed by the warships of a belligerent state in time of war to board and search merchant vessels to ascertain whether ship or cargo is liable to seizure

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

What does it mean when you dream about searching for something?

Searching for something in a dream often indicates the need to find something that is missing or needed in one’s life. Finding it may mean the dreamer will recover something important.

search

[sərch]

(computer science)

To seek a desired item or condition in a set of related or similar items or conditions, especially a sequentially organized or nonorganized set, rather than a multidimensional set.

(engineering)

To explore a region in space with radar.

(navigation)

An orderly arrangement of course lines used in searching an area.

search

The organized employment of aircraft to find an objective, whose position is unknown or uncertain, or whose position is known but has not been located on the ETA (estimated/expected time of arrival). The common methods of aerial search are the square search, expanding search, and search along the route. See square search and expanding search.

search

(1) To look for specific data in a file or an occurrence of text in a file. A search implies either scanning content sequentially or using algorithms to compare multiple indexes to find a match. A search on the Web yields a list of Web pages that contain all the words in the search criteria (see SERP). Contrast with a "direct lookup," whereby a single index is used to keep track of data. See search engine, desktop search, Boolean search and query.

(2) The field of search engine technologies. See search engine.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Search

in criminal procedure, an investigative action consisting in the compulsory examination of rooms, outside areas, or the body and clothing of a person in order to find and confiscate the instruments of a crime, objects and valuables acquired by criminal means, or other objects and documents that may be important for a case. Searches are also conducted to find wanted persons or property that may be recovered through a civil suit or confiscated in accordance with a court judgment.

In the USSR a search is made on the basis of a reasoned decree of an investigator or person conducting an inquiry and only if there is reason to suppose that any of these objects are in a particular place or in someone’s possession. A search decree must be sanctioned by a procurator. Witnesses must be present during the search. All the objects and documents taken are shown to those present, and a description of them and where they were found is entered in a record, a copy of which is given to the person being searched.

Search

(Russian, rozysk), in the USSR, the measures taken by an investigator, an agency of inquiry, the administrative office of a place of confinement, or other agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to establish the whereabouts of accused persons hiding from investigation and trial, convicted persons who are evading the serving of their sentence or have fled from corrective labor institutions, or missing persons. A search may be announced either during the preliminary investigation or at the time that the investigation is suspended.

The codes of criminal procedure of the Union republics stipulate that a search for a person subject to criminal proceedings may take place only after the accusation has been announced to him or after a decree to prosecute him as the accused has been issued. An appropriate measure of restraint may be chosen at the same time that the search is announced.

Depending on the territory covered, a search is local or all-Union. Information from criminal records is used in conducting a search.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

The searching is more complex for the Super Search, because the search engine retrieves cases based on semantic meanings (i.e., similarities) and the "distance" between the meanings.

Retrieval from a case-based reasoning database

Multisearch interfaces such as Jux2, Germany's Googleguy, HotBot, Queryster, and Multi-Search-Engine make searching and comparing search results from several search engines easy.

Searching the Web with multisearch interfaces

* Searching for anyone who served aboard USS Thomaston (LSD-28) in September 1963.

Inquiries

MSN Search says that male search vanity knows no bounds, with almost a third of men (30 per cent) admitting they search for themselves online, and, on average, awarding themselves a self-satisfied 80 per cent satisfaction rating for their general searching abilities.

E-business: Why surfers prefer net to the girlfriend

Some go beyond traditional Boolean searching to include enhancements like a built-in thesaurus, natural language and fuzzy searching.

Don't ignore electronic due diligence: potential acquirers would do well to apply sophisticated electronic methods to quickly search email and other electronic data for lurking liabilities

To confirm their students' good preparation for searching databases, faculty can assign the following: after students decide upon a manageable research question, have them prepare a list of keywords, synonyms, and word variations that apply to their research question and then compose a few search statements to use in the database.

Research skills and the new undergraduate

If after searching AAP and Deskbook, you have not found an answer, then submit your question using the "Ask A Professor" button.

What Does the Defense Acquisition Deskbook Have to Do with International Programs?

Searching the Internet gives you more power--but also more spam

Find Your College Online

For example, searching on the injection molding of nitrile rubber using natural language, Boolean operators and classifications as follows gives a wide variation in the number of records retrieved:

Finding information on rubber using the Rapra Abstracts database

Searching by default is a modified form of the Folio search syntax that RIA uses for its CD products.

Internet-based commercial tax research tools