search partyn.

1832 Calcutta Mag. Apr. 238 The search party are twenty in number.

1855 ‘M. Harland’ Hidden Path xxxiv. 420 The discouraged search-parties came in, one after another, as the darkness precluded further quest.

1930 in Compilation Court-martial Orders 1916-1937 (1941) (U.S. Navy Dept.) II. 1474 These two men..joined a search party which was searching for two enlisted men from the U. S. S. Memphis who were missing on Coron Island.

1981 A. Morice Men in her Death viii. 91 I'll be on my way. Robin will be sending out search parties if I'm not home soon.

2003 Backwoods Home Mag. Nov. 25/2 Hunting season is in full swing, and a deerstalker may not return on time and require a search party.

1893 J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict iv. 70 Each con, as a rule, has a cupboard that locks... Search-parties dare not break into these unless ordered to do so by the major or the warden.

1916 in T. Coates Irish Uprising, 1914–21 (2000) iv. 146 Mr Dickson's house at 12, Harrington Street was visited by a military search-party during the course of Wednesday, 26th April, and a bag with some documents in it was taken away.

1953 G. Anstruther Vaux of Harrowden Introd. p. xi A Mr. Knightley, J. P., heading a search-party for concealed weapons in the houses of Romish recusants, fell foul of Lord Vaux and was violently ‘strook’ during the ensuing debate.

2006 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 9 Feb. 19/1 A government search party entered the undercroft below the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster.