sought
SaySAWT/sɔt/UK/sɔːt/
- 1Simple past and past participle of seek.
The committee sought advice from outside experts before reaching a decision.
Displaced families have long sought safety beyond the border.
Note
One irregular form does double duty: it is the plain past (they sought help) and the participle after have or be (help has been sought). It carries every meaning of seek, including the stretch to "tried to" in sought to calm the crowd. Some usage guides frown on that use, so tried to is the safer choice in careful writing. Older texts may also use it for simply going somewhere, a sense now obsolete.
sought is a form of seek
seek, verb: To strive to acquire or gain something; to aim at a particular goal. Full entry
- Spelling
- seek → sought: irregular (no -ed)
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