an officer in the customs, whose business it is to search and examine ships outward bound, if they have any prohibited goods on board, &c. (12 Car. II.) There are also searchers of leather, &c. See ALMAGER.

in ordnance, is an iron socket with branches, from four to eight in number, a little bent outwards, with small points at their ends; to this socket is fixed a wooden handle, from eight to twelve feet long, of about an inch and a quarter diameter. After the gun has been fired, this searcher is introduced into it, and turned round, in order to discover the cavities within. The distances of these cavities, if any be found, are then marked on the outside with chalk, when another searcher that has only one point, about which a mixture of wax and tallow is put, is introduced to take the impression of the holes; and if there be any hole, a quarter of an inch deep, or of any considerable length, the gun is rejected as unserviceable.