find
n 1: a productive insight [syn: {discovery}, {breakthrough}]
2: the act of discovering something [syn: {discovery}, {uncovering}]
v 1: 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" [syn: {happen},
{chance}, {hit}, {bump}, {encounter}]
2: 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" [syn: {detect}, {observe},
{discover}, {notice}]
3: come upon after searching; find the location of something
that was missed or lost; "Did you find your glasses?" "I
cannot find my gloves!" [syn: {regain}] [ant: {lose}]
4: after a calculation, investigation, experiment, or study;
"find the product of two numbers"; "The physicist who
found the elusive particle won the Nobel Prize" [syn: {determine},
{find out}, {ascertain}]
5: 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" [syn: {feel}]
6: perceive with any or all of one's senses; "We found
Republicans winning the offices"; "You'll see a lot of
cheating in this school"; give rise to or be characterized
by; "The 1960 saw the rebellion of the younger generation
against established traditions" [syn: {witness}, {see}]
7: 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" [syn: {line up}, {get hold}, {come up}]
8: make a discovery, make a new finding; "Roentgen discovered
X-rays"; "Darwin found many new species on the Galapagos
Islands" [syn: {discover}]
9: make a discovery; "She found that he had lied to her"; "The
story is false, so far as I can discover" [syn: {discover}]
10: 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"
11: decide on and make a declaration about; "find someone
guilty" [syn: {rule}]
12: 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" [syn: {receive},
{get}, {obtain}, {incur}]
13: 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"
14: get or find back; recover the use of; "She regained control
of herself"; "She found her voice and replied quickly"
[syn: {recover}, {retrieve}, {regain}]
15: succeed in reaching; arrive at; "The arrrow found its mark"
16: become aware of who one is and what one wants to do in life;
"My son went to Berkeley to find himself"