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search definition - legal

n

A police examination of a personÂ’s physical body, property, abode, or other area where the person would have an expectation of privacy, in order to find incriminating evidence. For a search to be legal, there must be probable cause, because the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable search and seizure.

v

To look for, as in the case of looking for evidence. See also frisk.

Webster's New World Law Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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