Noun

(en noun)

A journey or effort in pursuit of a goal (often lengthy, ambitious, or fervent); a mission.

* (William Shakespeare)

Cease your quest of love.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01

, author=Katie L. Burke , title=Ecological Dependency , volume=101, issue=1, page=64 , magazine= citation , passage=In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.}}

The act of seeking, or looking after anything; attempt to find or obtain; search; pursuit.

(obsolete) Request; desire; solicitation.

* Herbert

Gad not abroad at every quest and call / Of an untrained hope or passion.

(obsolete) A group of people making search or inquiry.

* (William Shakespeare)

The senate hath sent about three several quests to search you out.

(obsolete) Inquest; jury of inquest.

* (William Shakespeare)

What lawful quest have given their verdict?

Noun

(en noun)

an investigation or inquiry into the truth of some matter

* Latimer

as I could learn through earnest inquisition

* Shakespeare

Let not search and inquisition quail / To bring again these foolish runaways.

an inquest

a questioning

The finding of a jury, especially such a finding under a writ of inquiry.

* Blackstone

The justices in eyre had it formerly in charge to make inquisition concerning them by a jury of the county.

(Bouvier)