locate
/lə(ʊ)ˈkeɪt
/verb [with object]
1Discover the exact place or position of: engineers were working to locate the fault...
- Because forecasters always try to pinpoint the eye of the hurricane, this knowledge will help with locating the exact position and lead to better tracking.
- As well as tracking all types of electronic transactions, it is able to reconstruct text messages months after they were sent and locate the exact position of users.
- Although I know several swims well I will always use the plumbing rod to locate the exact positions that I want to fish.
Synonyms
find, discover, pinpoint, detect, track down, run to earth, unearth, hit on, come across, reveal, bring to light, sniff out, smoke out, search out, ferret out, turn up, uncover, come up with, lay one's hands on, pin down;
light on, stumble across/on, chance on
informal put one's finger on
1.1 [with object and adverbial of place] Situate in a particular place: these popular apartments are centrally located...
- Living in cities is more popular and the more expensive flats and apartments are centrally located.
- The city's old Central Jail built during the British Raj was located very centrally.
- The Academy is centrally located on Beretania and Victoria, and there is ample street parking.
Synonyms
situate, site, position, place, base;
put, build, establish, found, fix, station, install, lodge, set, settle, seat
1.2 [with object and adverbial] Place within a particular context: they locate their policies in terms of wealth creation...
- While Johnson does represent elderly female heads of households as aging and ailing individuals, she also carefully locates them within the context of their communities.
- What Derrida does not do is locate this within the context of Heidegger's general strategy of university reform.
- Looking at textual representations of ethnic identity in its own terms while also locating it within the larger cultural context can provide an ethnography of the written text.
1.3 [no object, with adverbial of place] North American Establish oneself or one’s business in a specified place: his marketing strategy has been to locate in small towns...
- On the first point, research shows that taxes are not necessarily the key factor in where people and businesses locate.
- Look for property data to show special exemptions for new businesses that locate in new residential areas.
- But the sale of the site and the possibility of new businesses locating on Swindon Road could inject some much needed capital into the local economy.
Derivatives
locatable
- He started hearing to the side of what she was saying, and as if behind it, but in an expanse without depth, with no top or bottom, yet which was materially locatable, another utterance with which hers had almost nothing in common.
- What shapes people today, what makes them behave as they do, how they behave is a mishmash, an amalgamation of the huge collection of exploded fragments of cultural entities which are not clearly geographically locatable.
- A given film adheres to enough conventions to make you feel comfortable, to make itself easily locatable when your mood dictates the search through movie listings.
Origin
Early 16th century: from Latin locat- 'placed', from the verb locare, from locus 'place'. The original sense was as a legal term meaning 'let out on hire', later (late 16th century) 'assign to a particular place', then (particularly in North American usage) 'establish in a place'. The sense 'discover the exact position of' dates from the late 19th century.
Rhymes
- perilous
- perilously
- perilousness
- peril point
- perils
- perilsome
- perilune
- perilymph
- perilymphangeitis
- perilymphangitis
- perilymphatic
- perimenopausal
- perimenopause
- perimenstrual
- perimeristem
- perimeter
- perimeter examination
- perimeter-less
- perimeter track
- perimetral
- perimetrial
- perimetric
- perimetrical
- perimetrically
- perimetritis