Do they have the same meaning?

Question

1. There was the book that he looked all over for.
2. There was the book that he searched.

Do they have the same meaning?

Answer 1

No. For most English speakers, the second sentence means that the book is the location where the person looked for something, but not the object the person wanted to find.

For example, "I searched the Internet" means I used the Internet to find something. "I searched the Internet for an answer." "I searched the Internet but I didn't find an answer."

"I searched the room for my keys, but I didn't search my car." "I didn't know if 'X' was a word, so I searched the dictionary." "The police searched everywhere, but the killer was never found." Etc.

Answer 2

Both expressions are fine, although the second is missing a preposition at the end:

There was the book that he searched for.

A more natural expression would be to use the past perfect progressive tense to suggest he had been looking and looking for the book, and then he found it:

There was the book that he had been looking all over for.

There was the book that he had been searching for.

Of course you may also use the past perfect tense:

There was the book that he had looked for.

But, given this is one of the few situations where the past perfect progressive makes sense, you might as well take advantage.

"Look all over" implies a lot of activity, running around, checking everywhere, while "search" means just that, to look for something. However, native speakers often exaggerate the degree of a search by using "look all over" even when they didn't really search hard at all. For example, I can say to a friend:

Oh hey I've been looking all over for my glasses, where did you find them?

Even though all I did was check my pockets and look under some magazines. It implies that I really tried to find them. My friend might reply:

They were on the table where you left them when you came in.

as a kind of rebuke, implying that I must not really have searched very hard for them.

Answer 3

Chris' answer is correct that the regular verb "searched" (without "for") means that "he searched" in the book.

Andrew's answer is correct that the second sentence would have the intended meaning if it used phrasal verb "searched for".

2b. There was the book that he searched for.

The second sentence would have the intended meaning if it used the irregular form "sought":

2c. There was the book that he sought.

Answer 4

Not exactly..

Both imply that the man/woman looked for a book however, according to the first sentence, he/she searched the book every where..

Whereas the second sentence is just telling that he/she looked for the book. To what extent? It isn't mentioned..