From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlook for somebody/something phrasal verb1 LOOK FORto try to find something that you have lost, or someone who is not where they should be SYN search for I’m looking for Steve – have you seen him? Detectives are still looking for the escaped prisoner. → search2(1)2 be looking for somebody/somethingLOOK FOR to be trying to find a particular kind of thing or person I’m sorry, we’re really looking for someone with no family commitments.be (just) what/who you are looking for ‘Salubrious’! That’s just the word I was looking for.3 be looking for trouble informalFIGHT to be behaving in a way that makes it likely that problems or violence will happen They walked into a bar looking for trouble. → look→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
look for • Hiking companions who survive a slide should look for, and dig for, their missing partner, Ray said.• Traditionally, we have looked for causes of learning difficulty in the child.• She decided to go to the ladies' room and look for him on the way.• In the near future, look for the Giants to be playing in downtown San Francisco and the 49ers on the Peninsula.be looking for somebody/something• They are looking for a product, just as surely as a shopper at the local mall is.• The police might be looking for him in Rome now.• The network is looking for something extra.• He seemed to be looking for something.• He soon saw what he was looking for: the manufacturer's name, Allison.• Mathie was looking for work after he decided to pull the plug on the 20-year-old classic emporium.• All three of them are looking for work in large towns.be looking for trouble• The kid with the knife was looking for trouble.• They were looking for trouble and they found us instead.• Hindsight tells me that I was looking for trouble, but-at the time I knew nothing about it. 