as in searched
to look through (as a place) carefully or thoroughly in an effort to find or discover something
the police scoured the city for the Typhoid Mary of this latest epidemic
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in scraped
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Recent Examples of scoured
Ellen Walker, JSTOR Daily, 3 Sep. 2025
Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025
Thankfully, Murphy had help, as her two friends scoured the area by her side (iPhone flashlights in hand).
—Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
Jones’ departure after seven years as editor sparked a broad search for a replacement led by Wintour, who scoured the industry inside and outside Condé Nast.
—Max Tani, semafor.com, 25 Aug. 2025
For the remaining chase days, the group scoured Tornado Alley, traversing a number states.
—Jim Clash, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
For a week, officials scoured the mountains outside Anaconda, a rural Montana community of around 9,400 people about 100 miles southeast of Missoula.
—Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 9 Aug. 2025
Pans, scoured, hung from hooks; knives glinted in ascending size.
—Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025
Researchers at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Australia scoured YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok for video footage of dancing birds, particularly cockatoos.
—Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 6 Aug. 2025
Multiple agencies have scoured the wilderness area for Gardner by foot and by air.
—Helena Wegner, Sacbee.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Verb
Recalling the English folk motif of the tree as possessing healing powers, a clump of soil dug up from an orchard in Lothlórien is used to replenish the scoured Shire.
—Ellen Walker, JSTOR Daily, 3 Sep. 2025
Adjective
Over the weekend, as online sleuths scoured photos of Trump for evidence of any frailty, the political scientist Ian Bremmer pointed out that obsessive scrutiny of a leader’s health is a hallmark of authoritarian countries.
—Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025
Thankfully, Murphy had help, as her two friends scoured the area by her side (iPhone flashlights in hand).
—Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
Jones’ departure after seven years as editor sparked a broad search for a replacement led by Wintour, who scoured the industry inside and outside Condé Nast.
—Max Tani, semafor.com, 25 Aug. 2025
For the remaining chase days, the group scoured Tornado Alley, traversing a number states.
—Jim Clash, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
For a week, officials scoured the mountains outside Anaconda, a rural Montana community of around 9,400 people about 100 miles southeast of Missoula.
—Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 9 Aug. 2025
Pans, scoured, hung from hooks; knives glinted in ascending size.
—Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025
Researchers at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Australia scoured YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok for video footage of dancing birds, particularly cockatoos.
—Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 6 Aug. 2025
Multiple agencies have scoured the wilderness area for Gardner by foot and by air.
—Helena Wegner, Sacbee.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scoured
Verb
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Every bag and piece of equipment that comes through security on Sunday will be scanned and thoroughly searched.—
Adam Zagoria,
Forbes.com,
7 Sep. 2025
-
Six officers searched their residence, and the couple were detained for eight hours over a spat with Cowley Hill Primary School.—
Benjamin Weinthal,
FOXNews.com,
7 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Advertisement In some respects, Patagonia has hardly changed since Chouinard founded the company.—
David Gelles,
Time,
9 Sep. 2025
-
With no clear winner yet, the European Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors, a public-private platform founded by the European Commission in 2024, has been edging its bets.—
Anna Heim,
Fortune,
9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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But ground teams detected the helium leak in Starliner's service module in the aftermath of the scrubbed countdown.—
Stephen Clark,
Ars Technica,
25 May 2024
-
There were no young girls floating by in elegant dresses, no scrubbed and spoiled children dressed in their finery and dragged toward churches and pagodas, no whisper of music drifting out of windows.—
Chantha Nguon,
Condé Nast Traveler,
20 Feb. 2024
Verb
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Victor Campos gently combed away sawdust clinging to Oden’s hide as an auctioneer’s voice echoed Saturday through the Gold Country Fair.—
Ishani Desai,
Sacbee.com,
6 Sep. 2025
-
The explosion of attention was traumatizing — death threats slipped under her dorm room door, paparazzi combed through her trash, and she was forced off campus with round-the-clock security.—
Scott Roxborough,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Scoured.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scoured. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.
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