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google /
gu
gl/ verb to type words into a search engine on the Internet, especially the GoogleTM search engine, in order to find information about sb/sth: [VN] You can google someone you’ve recently met to see what information is available about them on the Internet. 
We’ve been googled with the keywords ‘blue-sky thinking’ (= people have found our web site by typing in these words). You should be able to google your way to their home page. [V] I tried googling but couldn’t find anything relevant.
It is interesting to see how a new word develops as it can show something about general tendencies of English words. In the case of google, we see that there is a tendency in English for simple verbs to develop into phrasal verbs. Although the verb is relatively young, it is already developing its own phrasal verbs. So not only can you google sb, but you can now google sb up (for example, I wanted to google her up to find out where she worked, but I couldn’t remember her name.). You can also google around for sth (for example, googling around for a recipe). The first of these phrasal verbs is similar to the verb look sb up (= to make contact with sb, especially when you have not seen them for a long time), and the second is much like look around for sth (= to search around for sth in a number of different places). The meanings and forms of these older phrasal verbs perhaps provided a pattern for the creation of the new ones.
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Check out the Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary for learners of English. It covers more than 6 000 British and American verbs and contains a guide to the particles and their main meanings. Learning more about the particles will help you understand why phrasal verbs develop in the way that they do, and help you guess the meanings of new phrasal verbs when you meet them. |
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