seek

English Online Dictionary. What means seek‎? What does seek mean?

English

Alternative forms

• seech (now dialectal)
• seeke (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English seken (also sechen, whence dialectal English seech), from Old English sēċan (compare beseech); from Proto-West Germanic *sōkijan, from Proto-Germanic *sōkijaną (“to seek”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to seek out”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian säike (“to seek”), West Frisian sykje (“to seek”), Dutch zoeken (“to seek”), Low German söken (“to seek”), German suchen (“to seek”), Danish søge (“to seek”), Swedish söka, Norwegian Bokmål søke (“to seek”), Norwegian Nynorsk søkja (“to seek”), Icelandic sækja (“to seek”). The Middle English and later Modern English hard /k/ derives from Old English sēcð, the third person singular; the forms with /k/ were then reinforced by cognate Old Norse sǿkja.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sēk, IPA^(key): /siːk/
• Homophone: Sikh
• Rhymes: -iːk

Verb

seek (third-person singular simple present seeks, present participle seeking, simple past and past participle sought)

1. (ambitransitive) To try to find; to look for; to search for.

   Synonyms: look for, search for

2. (transitive) To ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
3. (transitive) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
   • 1886, Constantine Popoff, translation of Leo Tolstoy's What I Believe:

     I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
5. (transitive) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.
6. (intransitive, sometimes proscribed) To attempt, endeavour, try

7. (intransitive, computing) To navigate through a stream.

   Synonym: scrub

Usage notes

• Fowler, in the entry "Formal Words," criticizes the use of "seek" in place of "try" or "look for." [1]

Conjugation

Quotations

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:seek.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

seek (plural seeks)

1. (computing) The operation of navigating through a stream.

Anagrams

• eeks, ekes, kees, seke, skee

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German sêkhûs (“hospital”) (equivalent to sêk +‎ hûs). From Proto-West Germanic *seuk, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *seukaz (“sick”). Compare German Siechenhaus (“infirmary”), English sickhouse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈseːk/
• Rhymes: -eːk
• Hyphenation: seek

Noun

seek (genitive seegi, partitive seeki)

1. almshouse
   1. A residence and shelter for sick people in the Middle Ages.
   2. (colloquial) A nursing home, retirement home; poorhouse

Declension

References

• seek in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

Limburgish

Alternative forms

• zeek (Veldeke spelling)
• ṣeek, zeek (Rheinische Dokumenta spelling)
• séïk (Eupen)

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *seuk, from Proto-Germanic *seukaz, from *seukaną (“to be sick”), further etymology is uncertain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzeːk/
• Homophone: Seek
• Rhymes: -eːk

Adjective

seek (masculine seeke, feminine seeke, comparative seeker, superlative et seekst) (German-based spelling)

1. (rare or archaic in many dialects) sick, ill

   Synonym: krank

2. infected

   Hää hau einge seeke Monk. ― He had an infected mouth.

3. sickly (frequently ill, given to becoming ill, or having the appearance of sickness)

   Et seek Kenk ess wärm krank. ― The sickly child is ill again.

Derived terms