as in searching
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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Recent Examples of scouring
Luckily for you, Vanity Fair was on the red carpet, at the show, and scouring the parties for all the best off-camera moments.
—
Vanity Fair, 16 Mar. 2026
They’ve been deeply engaged with facilitating multiple administration data-gathering efforts aimed at scouring voter rolls for noncitizens, the officials said.
—Doug Bock Clark, ProPublica, 14 Mar. 2026
By scouring the nation for its contestants and instituting a revolutionary audience-voting system, American Idol became a hot topic in its early seasons and continues to exert influence on music today.
—Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Mar. 2026
The better part of my day job includes scouring for new trends, cool companies, unique products, and major deals.
—Lauren Bengtson, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scouring
Vanity Fair, 16 Mar. 2026
They’ve been deeply engaged with facilitating multiple administration data-gathering efforts aimed at scouring voter rolls for noncitizens, the officials said.
—Doug Bock Clark, ProPublica, 14 Mar. 2026
By scouring the nation for its contestants and instituting a revolutionary audience-voting system, American Idol became a hot topic in its early seasons and continues to exert influence on music today.
—Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Mar. 2026
The better part of my day job includes scouring for new trends, cool companies, unique products, and major deals.
—Lauren Bengtson, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scouring
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scouring
Verb
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Police in New Jersey are searching for a vandal who threw bricks through the windows of vehicles parked on streets in at least two Union County towns.—
Allen Devlin,
CBS News,
6 Apr. 2026
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Its reappearance on the literary scene comes at a time when younger generations, who may be naive to MI theory, are searching for new ways to be defined.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
6 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Investigators would spend weeks building their case, combing through nearly 7,000 texts exchanged over the three months before Harold died.—
Peter Van Sant,
CBS News,
5 Apr. 2026
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After combing through Blue Hills’ finances and internal records, however, the auditors found several other serious problems with how the nonprofit spent millions of dollars in state taxpayer money.—
Andrew Brown,
Hartford Courant,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scouring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scouring. Accessed 10 Apr. 2026.
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