You could use this to search for a loutish character (5)
I believe the answer is:
yahoo
'character' is the definition.
(Yahoo is an example)
'you could use this to search for a loutish' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'you' could be 'ya' (non-standard spelling as in 'see ya later') and 'ya' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'hoo' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yahoo that I've seen before include "Uncouth person" , "One of Dean Swift's brutish people" , "In novel, brute" , "Swift brute" , "Exclamation of joy; brute" .)