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find out

phrasal verb

Formsfinds out, finding out, found out

5 meanings of find out

Practice

  1. 1
    get informationphrasal verbidiomatictransitive
    To discover something, for example by asking questions or investigating.

    Call the box office and find out whether there are any seats left for Saturday.

    Reporters spent months finding out who had leaked the documents.

    Similardiscover, learn, ascertain, determine

    Note

    The object is often left unsaid: it should be easy to find out. With a fact as object the two words usually stay together (find out the truth), but a pronoun goes between them, as in Conan Doyle's The Lost World: why shouldn't we be the men to find it out? A person in the middle, as in found him out, belongs to catching a wrongdoer.

  2. 2
    catch doing wrongphrasal verbtransitive
    To discover or reveal that someone has been dishonest, disobedient, or otherwise in the wrong.

    The treasurer had been skimming from the club's accounts for years before an audit finally found him out.

    She lived in fear of being found out by her parents after skipping school all week.

    Similarexpose, catch, unmask

  3. 3
    pay the pricephrasal verbslangintransitive
    To face the consequences of one's own actions.

    He kept picking fights with the biggest guy at the bar, and eventually he found out.

    Mess with my little sister and you'll find out.

    Note

    Nothing follows the verb in the slang use: you don't find out something, you just find out, and the lesson is the price of your behavior. It closes warnings (mess with her and you'll find out) and stories about someone who pushed too far, and it belongs to casual talk, where the threat is left unspoken.

  4. 4
    show weaknessphrasal verbtransitive
    To bring to light a weakness in someone.

    He looked strong in practice, but the first real match found him out.

    Steep mountain stages always find out riders who skipped their winter training.

    Similarexpose

    Note

    Here the one doing the finding out is usually a test rather than a person: an exam, a first real match or a steep climb shows what someone cannot do. That is the quickest way to tell it from catching a wrongdoer; here nothing wrong was done, and only a weakness comes to light.

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    come acrossphrasal verbarchaic
    To discover something, for example by perceiving it or coming upon it.
    Note

    Older English let the phrase take the thing itself as object, where modern English uses find alone: today you find out where the cave is, but you find the cave. Met in an older text, finding out a path simply means coming upon it; in modern writing that use sounds archaic.

Practice

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