Search for pre-existing Gmail email messages from a long list of addresses

I have finally decided to take at least one more stab at dealing with an obscene amount of pre-existing emails in my Gmail account.

Google allows you to use their web interface to set up filters that automatically filter certain content, but those filters for me at least don't do much other than confuse an already out-of-control situation.

Where they are throttling is in the main "search" feature outside of the automatic filters.

Let's say that you want to search, not one-by-one, but all at once, messages that come from a list of email addresses that you have defined as ones that you might want to remove from your account.

There appears to simply be no way to do that.

I am desperate to solve this.

Am I on to something here? What am I missing?