Verb

(deriv)

To obtain or receive (something) from something else.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz

, title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}

(logic) To deduce (a conclusion) by reasoning.

(linguistics) To find the derivation of (a word or phrase).

(chemistry) To create (a compound) from another by means of a reaction.

To originate or stem (from).

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01

, author=Robert M. Pringle, volume=100, issue=1, page=31, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= How to Be Manipulative , passage=As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.}}

To turn the course of (water, etc.); to divert and distribute into subordinate channels.

* (and other bibliographic details) Holland

For fear it [water] choke up the pitsthey [the workman] derive it by other drains.

Verb

(lb) To try to find, to look for, to search.

:

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.

(label) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.

:

*Bible, (w) xi. 16

*:Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.

*1960 , (Lobsang Rampa), :

*:“My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.

(lb) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.

:

*1880 , , :

*:But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.

*1886 , Constantine Popoff, translation of (Leo Tolstoy)'s :

*:I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.

*

*:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.

To go, move, travel (in a given direction).

:

*, Bk.V:

*:Ryght so he sought towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes

(lb) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.

*:

*:Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

*1726 (tr.), (Alexander Pope), ''(Homer)'s (Odyssey), Book II, line 33

*:Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains