searching

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of search

comparative more searching · superlative most searching

1. usuallyThorough.

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

   1916 March 28, R. A. Millikan, “A Direct Photoelectric Determination of Planck's "h"”, in Physical Review, volume 7, number 3, →DOI, page 388

2. Looking over closely; penetrating; severe.

   a searching gaze; searching criticism

   2 more examples

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

   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

   ... 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.

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

plural searchings

1. Search; hunt.

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

   1978 April 8, Barb Nesto, “Woman from the West”, in Gay Community News, page 10

   1 more example

   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.

   2007 November 4, Mark Oppenheimer, “The Turning of an Atheist”, in New York Times