How do I disable the "expanded search" feature, or is there a website that I can use?

[ccuriel]

How do I disable the "expanded search" feature, or is there a website that I can use besides ebay that will exclude the search terms I do not want appearing? Its so annoying trying to find your size when they are all a size 5... size 5 brings up every single half size as well.... so I get 10,000 results and only 2% are size 5, the rest are 10.5, 9.5, 6.5, etc. Also, I want to buy nursing tops (as in breastfeeding) but I minus the word 'scrubs' out only to have every single listing be some crappy plastic garbage clothing a thousand times burying my local sellers who I actually would like to buy  breastfeeding tops from. Why would ebay stop the general search? Its so annoying. 

[ccuriel]

crappy plastic clothing as in, every single listing is "scrubs" even though I used the advanced search feature and specifically asked it to minus the word "scrubs" 

[gosimus]

@ccuriel 

< How do I disable the "expanded search" feature >     

Use any operator in your search terms.  What I usually do is put a single word inside quotation marks.  For some unknown reason, the US site has removed the discussion of ASE – Automatic Search Expansion – from the help pages, but it's still in the Singapore help pages, at least for now:  https://www.ebay.com.sg/pages/help/search/expanding.html  

When you want to exclude a term, a hyphen touching the left side of the word is eBay's NOT operator.  I've got in the habit of excluding the term, and its plural, thus:  -camera -cameras   

[ccuriel]

Still seeing the exact thing i am minusing out of my searches in every listing. Maybe I can use an international ebay site to view the US site? 

[eburtonlab]

The problem with searching using only keywords and text matching is that the number 5 also turns up in a lot of other listings and there is not an easy way to eliminate the matches that you do not want. You could try putting "size 5" in quotes as a search term, but that would skip many listings that do not use that exact phrase but that use a different phrase like women's 5 or ladies 5. Or you could try excluding the other sizes by using search terms like -10.5 -9.5 -8.5, etc. but that is awkward at best.

Depending on what category you are searching -- if you can narrow it down far enough -- there may be a size filter that you can use. That should match only listings that are that particular size without matching fractional sizes, assuming that sellers include that size item-specific for the filter to catch. Filters are much better suited for this sort of thing than keywords, because the filters force all sellers to use the exact same term for that particular size variable, and the filter will not match listings where the number 5 appears elsewhere in the title or specifics.

If you are trying to search for local sellers, you can narrow your search to US only, or try searching within a particular radius of your zip code, or sort nearest first.

If you provide a link to a search you are currently using and describe which results you prefer and which you want to eliminate, someone may be able to suggest some practical modifications to narrow it down for you.