find has definitions from the field of psychology
1
[ verb ] come upon, as if by accident; meet with

Examples

"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"

Used in print

(Schubert Ogden, Christ Without Myth....)

It follows , then , provided the possibilities have been exhausted , that the only real alternative is the general viewpoint of the `` left '' , which has been represented on the Continent by Fritz_Buri and , to some extent at_least , is found in much that is significant in American and English theology .

(Organic Gardening and Farming,...)

Whenever there is a thaw or a_few sunny days , you 'll be likely to find a brave little blossom or two .

(Richard I. McCosh, "Recreation Site Selection"...)

Water interest is one of the most valuable factors you can find for a recreation site .

The fish , animals , and birds which may be found at the site are another interest .

(Edward Austin Walton, "On Education for the Interior...)

Nor will the hack , the Jack-of-all-trades , still found in some of the smaller art_schools , suffice .

Related terms

discovery meeting

2
[ verb ] discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of

Examples

"She detected high levels of lead in her drinking water" "We found traces of lead in the paint"

Used in print

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch,...)

`` Several times I found the players pepping me up , where it usually is the coach who is supposed to deliver the fight talk .

(The Times-Picayune, [New Orleans]...)

Softness is found in crushed textures .

Just the barest suggestion of a heel is found on teenage pumps .

(William G. Pollard, Physicist and Christian....)

We simply find ourselves in the position of having no means for inquiring into the structure and meaning of this range of our experience .

The situation in which we find ourselves is brought_out with dramatic force in Arthur_Miller 's play The_Crucible , which deals with the Salem witch trials .

3
[ verb ] come upon after searching; find the location of something that was missed or lost

Synonyms

regain

Examples

"Did you find your glasses?" "I cannot find my gloves!"

Used in print

(Musical America, LXXXI:5...)

In this changed world , Prokofieff settled to find himself , and to create for large national purpose .

(Norman Kent, "The Watercolor Art of Roy M. Mason"...)

`` Of_late years , I find that I like best to work out-of-doors .

(Tom F. Driver, "Beckett by the Madeleine,"...)

Plays more highly formalized than `` Waiting_for_Godot '' , `` Endgame '' , and `` Krapp 's_Last_Tape '' would be hard to find .

(R. F. Shaw, "The `Private Eye`"...)

Sam_Spade joins_forces with a band of adventurers in search of a priceless jeweled statue of a falcon ; but when the bird is found at_last , it turns_out to be a fake .

(Edward Jablonski, Harold Arlen Happy with the Blues....)

The innocent malfeasant , filled with that supreme sense of honor found in bars , insisted upon replacing the destroyed monocle - and did , over the protests of the former owner - with a square monocle .

4
[ verb ] come to believe on the basis of emotion, intuitions, or indefinite grounds

Synonyms

feel

Examples

: "I feel that he doesn't like me" "I find him to be obnoxious" "I found the movie rather entertaining"

Used in print

(Chicago Daily Tribune...)

Certainly not in Orchestra_hall where he has played countless recitals , and where Thursday night he celebrated his 20th season with the Chicago_Symphony_orchestra , playing the Brahms_Concerto with his own slashing , demon-ridden cadenza melting into the high , pale , pure and lovely song with which a violinist unlocks the heart of the music , or forever finds it closed .

(William G. Pollard, Physicist and Christian....)

The members of the community do not create the spirit but rather find it present and waiting for them .

It is they , of_course , who keep it alive and preserve it so the same spirit will continue to be present in the Corps for future recruits to find as they come into it .

(Edward E. Kelly, S.J., "Christian Unity in England"...)

She found this a marvel because , as she said , only six per_cent of English_people are churchgoers .

(High Fidelity, 11:10...)

But having lived with the disc for some time now , I find the performance less exciting than either Schnabel 's or Fleisher 's ( whose superb performance with the Budapest_Quartet has still to be recorded ) and a good_deal less filled with humor than Curzon 's .

Related terms

reason conclude rule

5
[ verb ] after a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study

Examples

"find the product of two numbers" "The physicist who found the elusive particle won the Nobel Prize"

Used in print

(The Detroit News...)

In_the_past such government claims have been found exaggerated .

(The Dallas Morning News,...)

A measure of how hot the stock was , can be found in_what happened to it on the market as soon as trading began .

(Los Angeles Times,...)

Hayes said that if a way can be found to deal effectively with short-term capital movements between nations , `` there is no reason , in my judgment why the international financial system cannot work satisfactorily for at_least the foreseeable future '' .

(Paul Ramsey, War and the Christian Conscience. Durham,...)

Presumably , if the reverse is the case and the good effect is more certain than the evil result that may be forthcoming , not_only must the good and the evil be prudentially weighed and found proportionate , but also calculation of the probabilities and of the degree of certainty or uncertainty in the good or evil effect must be taken_into_account .

(Kenneth Underwood and Elden Jacobsen, "Probing the...)

From such communal roles the realtor finds the substance that shapes his moral understanding .

6
[ verb ] perceive with any or all of one's senses

Synonyms

see witness

Examples

"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" "I want to see results"

Used in print

(The Times-Picayune, [New Orleans]...)

If the record buyer 's tastes are somewhat eclectic or even the slightest bit esoteric , he will find them satisfied on educational records .

(Edward E. Kelly, S.J., "Christian Unity in England"...)

On my first Guy_Fawkes_Day here , I found Catholics as well as non Catholics celebrating with the traditional fireworks and bonfires , and was told that most Englishmen either do not know or are not concerned with the historical significance of the day .

I have found myself saying with other foreigners here that English Catholics are good Catholics .

(Jaroslav Pelikan, The Shape of Death: life, death and...)

Such efforts almost always find themselves compelled to ask whether Adam was created capable of growing old and_then older and_then still older , in_short , whether Adam 's life was intended to be part of the process of time .

(Mr. America, 4:6...)

Because they are `` minority '' exercises and have but a limited appeal they soon find themselves in the limbo of the forgotten .

7
[ verb ] get something or somebody for a specific purpose

Examples

"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"

Used in print

(Musical America, LXXXI:5...)

But time is running_out , and many_of Stravinsky 's admirers begin to fear that he will never find terra_firma .

(Norman Kent, "The Watercolor Art of Roy M. Mason"...)

More_often_than_not I have found easy excuse to leave my own work and stand at a respectable distance where I could watch this man transform raw nature into a composed , not imitative , painting .

(James Boylan, "Mutinity"...)

But men willing to sail at_all into waters where wooden ships could be crushed like eggs were hard to find .

(James Bryant Conant, Slums and Suburbs...)

One has_to talk confidentially with some of the directors of vocational high_schools to realize that a boy cannot just say , `` I want to be a plumber '' , and then , by doing good work , find a job .

(Brainard Cheney, "Christianity and the Tragic Vision-Ut...)

The first of_which to find important place in our federal_government was the graduated income_tax under Wilson .

Related terms

get

8
[ verb ] make a discovery, make a new finding

Synonyms

discover

Examples

"Roentgen discovered X-rays" "Physicists believe they found a new elementary particle"

Used in print

(Rocky Mountains News, [Denver, Colorado],...)

The Giants who had been anemic with the bat in their windy Candlestick_Park suddenly found the formula in Milwaukee 's park .

(The New York Times,...)

If there had been , he would have found a loophole , because Arnold is one golfer who knows the code as thoroughly as the man who wrote the book .

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch,...)

St._Louis_University found a way to win a baseball_game .

(Frank Getlein and Harold C. Gardiner, S.J., Movies,...)

Immediately , the film improved and it improved because in narrative it found a content based on time to complement its own unbreakable connection with time .

(James A. Ibers et al., "Proton magnetic resonance...)

He finds the structure contains an **f bond with the **f distance of **f .

9
[ verb ] make a discovery

Synonyms

discover

Examples

"She found that he had lied to her" "The story is false, so far as I can discover"

Used in print

(Organic Gardening and Farming,...)

You will find that avocado is unlike any other fruit you have ever tasted .

(Douglas Ashford, "Elections in Morocco: Progress...)

The Istiqlal found that the spontaneous solidarity of the independence struggle was not easily transposed to the more concrete , precise problems of internal politics .

(Brand Blanshard, "The Emotive Theory," Robert...)

If we did not mean to say this , why should we be so relieved on finding that the suffering had not occurred ?

(Jim Berry Pearson, The Maxwell Land Grant....)

By 3 : 00 A.M. they reached his house and found it vacant .

(Robert A. Futterman, The Future of Our Cities....)

Bankers who had been reluctant to lend without better security than the house itself got that security from the U._S. government ; householders who had been unable to pick_up the burden of short-term high interest mortgages found they could borrow for twenty-five years at 4 per_cent , under government aegis .

10
[ verb ] decide on and make a declaration about

Synonyms

rule

Examples

"find someone guilty"

Used in print

(The Detroit News...)

A jury of seven men and five women found 21 - year-old Richard_Pohl guilty of manslaughter yesterday in the bludgeon slaying of Mrs._Anna_Hengesbach .

He was found guilty of reckless driving yesterday by Traffic_Judge_George_T._Murphy , who continued his no-driving probation for another year and ordered him to spend 15 days in the Detroit House_of_Correction .

(Robert Wallace, "This Is the Way It Came About"...)

Yet there were other motivations and actions which the Belgians took after independence for which history may_not find them guiltless .

(Confidential, 9:1...)

( Jelke later served 21 months when he was found guilty of masterminding a ring of high-priced call_girls . )

(Cordwainer Smith, "A Planet Named Shayol,"...)

She found this immensely comforting , even_though Mercer did not make much sense out of_it .

Related terms

pronounce finding

11
[ verb ] obtain through effort or management

Examples

"She found the time and energy to take care of her aging parents" "We found the money to send our sons to college"

Used in print

(Dale L. Womble, "Functional Marriage Course...)

The philosophy has been that if they could find the time to attend class why not encourage them to get the credit and perhaps provide an incentive to do the work more effectively .

Related terms

get

12
[ verb ] receive a specified treatment (abstract)

Synonyms

get receive obtain incur

Examples

"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"

Used in print

(Chester G. Starr, The Origins of Greek Civili...)

Many aspects of civilization were not_yet sufficiently crystallized to find expression , nor could the simple economic and social foundations of this world support a lofty structure .

The historian can only point_out those lines which were major enough to find reflection in our limited evidence , and must hope that future excavations will enrich our understanding .

(John Michael Ray, "Rhode Island's Reactions...)

Most attempts to develop any sympathy for Brown and his actions found an unresponsive audience in Rhode_Island .

The editor of the Daily_Journal warned , `` that if such a demonstration be made , it will not find support or countenance from any of the men whose names are recognized as having a right to speak_for Providence '' .

(Glayds H. Barr, The Master of Geneva....)

But William continued to find a bitter joy in smashing images and tearing_down symbols sacred to the Old_Church .

Related terms

change take get

13
[ verb ] perceive oneself to be in a certain condition or place

Examples

"I found myself in a difficult situation" "When he woke up, he found himself in a hospital room"

Used in print

([Anonymous,] "The Attack on Employee Services"...)

Some plants go overboard on one type of fringe - say a liberal retirement plan - and find themselves vulnerable elsewhere .

(Booton Herndon, "From Custer to Korea, The 7th Cavalry"...)

It was Bob_Carroll , who had suddenly found himself imbued with the spirit of Garryowen .

(Peter J. White, "Report on Laos"...)

And so , after a flight southeast to Savannakhet , we found ourselves bouncing along in a Jeep right behind the Land-Rover of Prince_Boun_Oum of Champassak , a tall man of Churchillian mien in a bush_jacket and a ten-gallon_hat from Texas .

(R. F. Shaw, "The `Private Eye`"...)

Because the private_eye intends to save society in_spite_of himself , he invariably finds himself in_trouble with the police .

(Brainard Cheney, "Christianity and the Tragic Vision-Ut...)

This is important to understanding the position that doctrinaire liberals found themselves in after World_War_2 , and our great democratic victory that brought no peace .

Related terms

perceive witness

14
[ verb ] accept and make use of one's personality, abilities, and situation

Synonyms

find_oneself

Examples

"My son went to Berkeley to find himself"

Related terms

mature

15
[ verb ] get or find back; recover the use of

Examples

"She regained control of herself" "She found her voice and replied quickly"

Related terms

get access restitution recovery

16
[ verb ] succeed in reaching; arrive at

Examples

"The arrow found its mark"

Related terms

reach

17
[ noun ] (psychology) a productive insight

Related terms

insight learn discover discover

18
[ verb ] become aware of who one is and what one wants to do in life

Examples

"My son went to Berkeley to find himself"

Related terms

reach recognize

19
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