search up

English

Etymology

A conflation of search with look up

Verb

search up (third-person singular simple present searches up, present participle searching up, simple past and past participle searched up)

1. (informal) To obtain something, especially information, about (something) from a source (especially electronic sources).

   Synonym: look up

   • 1909 October 22, “Suggestions for the construction of chemical laboratories”, in Science, volume 30, number 773, American Association for the Advancement of Science, →OCLC, page 551:

     The losing of keys can be largely prevented by requiring the use of key chains attached to the bunch of keys and also by informing the student that they are charged one dollar each if lost. They have the advantage that they are much more easily opened, while if the combination be forgotten the instructor has to search it up in the records.

   • 1998 June 23, C&H Wood, “Re: harp playing & carpal tunnel”, in rec.org.sca‎^[1] (Usenet):

     I recommend a booklet by Laurie Riley on preventing harp related injury - can't remember the title just now but I'll try to search it up.

   • 2009, Kieli Levin, Diana Help Me, page 10:

     I searched up ghost people who knew what to do in a ghost case

   • 2010 February 24, Hana Al Hawash, “For the love of traveling”, in The Communicator, Indiana Purdue Student Newspapers Inc., page 5:

     Any other cool facts about your town/state? Bremerton: L. Ron Hubbard grew up and wrote his early works here. Nobody ever mentions this, probably because they fear the town becoming a Mecca for Scientologists. Seattle: Search it up, the whole town is one cool fact.

   • 2011, Sandra Leigh Savage, Love Letters, page 47:

     So I went onto online, to search up the number 17. I thought the information for this number was and is fascinating. It has importance in both of the math realm and Biblically.

   • 2012, Michelle Steven, Beyond Happiness:

     If you were to search up the word happiness in a dictionary, your results would be something like "the state of being happy" or "joy".

   • 2012, Meynardie Blanchard, Rails Trails and Other Tales, page 157:

     So I spent a good couple of hours (it seems) in searching up some firewood, mostly wood chips and twigs, but I collected quite a pile.

   • 2012, Redd, Erick S. Gray, Nikki-Michelle, Girls from Da Hood 7:

     I haven't been seeing her around lately,” G.G. chimed. “She too busy with school and bein' in her books. She gonna come in here and head straight to her room and lock her door, probably studying or being online searching up shit,” T.T. said.

   • 2017 October 5, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah‎^[2] (Television), John Hodgman (actor):

     So, there I am on a popular retail website searching up tiki torches and seriously, I'm like, Why are all these tiki torches sold out? . . . This is very strange. This was the Wednesday before Charlottesville.

   • 2019, Susan Danby, Christina Davidson, “Webs of relationships”, in The Routledge Handbook of Digital Literacies in Early Childhood‎^[3], page 407:

     In line 14, the mother again reiterates her original query, and immediately proposes a strategy for finding out: "search it up please" (line 16).

   • 2019 November 26, Lily Kuo, “TikTok 'makeup tutorial' goes viral with call to action on China's treatment of Uighurs”, in The Guardian‎^[4]:

     She instructs: “Then you’re going to put [the eyelash curler] down and use your phone … to search up what’s happening in China

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see search,‎ up. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Anagrams

• Purchase, purchase