Search the Dictionary

Exploring thoroughly; scrutinizing; penetrating; trying; as, a searching discourse; a searching eye. "Piercing, searching, biting, cold." Dickens. -- Search"ing*ly, adv. -- Search"ing*ness, n.

Impossible to be searched; inscrutable; impenetrable.

To examine critically or minutely; to scrutinize. Sifting the very utmost sentence and syllable. Hooker. Opportunity I here have had To try thee, sift thee. Milton. Let him but narrowly sift his ideas. I. Taylor. To sift out, to search out with care, as if by sifting.

To search narrowly; to scrutinize. It is my nature's plague To spy into abuses. Shak.

Anything which serves for support; a staff; a prop; a crutch; a cane. His weak steps governing And aged limbs on cypress stadle stout. Spenser.

A crutch; also, the handle of a plow. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

To submit; to make accountable. God is not bound to subject his ways of operation to the scrutiny of our thoughts. Locke.

To view with a scrutinizing eye; to examine. With such altered looks, . . . All pale and speechless, he surveyed me round. Dryden.

Not searchable; inscrutable; hidden; mysterious. The counsels of God are to us unsearchable. Rogers. -- Un*search"a*ble*ness, n. -- Un*search"a*bly, adv.

To sift and examine; to bring out, and subject to penetrating scrutiny; to expose to examination and discussion; as, to ventilate questions of policy. Ayliffe.