Dictionary synonym lookup via networking
What about something like this?

val socket = new Socket(InetAddress.getByName("localhost"), 4444)
val out = new PrintStream(socket.getOutputStream)
val bs = BufferedSource(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream, "utf8"))
out.println("LOOKUP "  + word)
out.flush()
val output = bs.getLines.find(_.contains("200"))
socket.close()
output


FWIW in the general case you could replace that sort of match construct you're using with something like this:

Option(curr).filter(_.contains("200"))