searching

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜːtʃɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜɹt͡ʃɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃɪŋ

searching

1. present participle and gerund of search

searching (comparative more searching, superlative most searching)

1. (of an investigation, etc.) Thorough.
   • 1916 March, R. A. Millikan, “A Direct Photoelectric Determination of Planck's "h"”, in Physical Review, volume 7, number 3, →DOI, page 388:

     Einstein's photoelectric equation has been subjected to very searching tests and it appears in every case to predict exactly the observed results.

2. Looking over closely; penetrating; severe.

   a searching gaze; searching criticism

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 201:

     ‘So you are going out there. Famous. Interesting too.’ He gave me a searching glance, and made another note.

   • 1910, Harold Bindloss, Sydney Carteret, Rancher, New York : A.L. Burt Company, page 117:

     ... a searching rain began to fall. In half an hour he was wet to the skin, and he fancied that Carteret, who sat amidships with the rain dripping from the light overcoat he had carried with him, could not be much drier.

searching (plural searchings)

1. Search; hunt.
   • 1978 April 8, Barb Nesto, “Woman from the West”, in Gay Community News, page 10:

     Her songs take us through many mood changes from lighthearted lovesongs and social commentary to a serious searching for answers and understanding.

   • 2007 November 4, Mark Oppenheimer, “The Turning of an Atheist”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Depending on whom you ask, Antony Flew is either a true convert whose lifelong intellectual searchings finally brought him to God or a senescent scholar possibly being exploited by his associates.

• incharges, reachings, rechasing