seek for

English

Verb

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

1. (now rare) To try to find or attain; to seek.
   • 1889, “LOTS OF FISH CAUGHT.; CROWDS OF FISHERMEN ALONG THE NORTH RIVER AND AT CITY ISLAND.”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Any one who doubts the quality of the sport found by those fishermen who seek for their Sunday victims in the North River should have strolled along its bank yesterday above One Hundredth-street.

   • 1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 9:

     I had been out all day trudging from one newspaper office to another, seeking for work and finding none.

   • 2020, Alexis Soloski, “‘Unsolved Mysteries’ Returns, Because 2020 Isn’t Scary Enough”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     From the beginning, competing impulses powered “Unsolved Mysteries”: a crusading compulsion to seek for justice and a market-driven need to entertain.

Usage notes

Since the early 20th century, seek for has been rare compared to transitive seek. When it is used contemporarily, it is usually with more abstract objects (for example, balance, justice, or purpose) rather than concrete.

Further reading

• seek _NOUN_, seek for _NOUN_ at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.

Anagrams

• forseek