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
Italy’s Culture Ministry was scouring the world for the Nonantola abbey’s missing manuscripts, snapping them up in auctions and from collectors around the world.
—
Andrea Rosa, Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2026
Italy's culture ministry was scouring the world for the Nonantola abbey's missing manuscripts, snapping them up in auctions and from collectors around the world.
—CBS News, 17 May 2026
Yet the fervor, whether consequential or minor, in some ways has little to do with the actual physical experience of being in Venice, scouring the city for art.
—Sebastian Smee, The Atlantic, 16 May 2026
Years of scouring the surface of a rugged landscape like Mars can take a toll on any vehicle – even one like NASA's Curiosity rover specifically designed for the harsh conditions.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 12 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for scouring
Andrea Rosa, Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2026
Italy's culture ministry was scouring the world for the Nonantola abbey's missing manuscripts, snapping them up in auctions and from collectors around the world.
—CBS News, 17 May 2026
Yet the fervor, whether consequential or minor, in some ways has little to do with the actual physical experience of being in Venice, scouring the city for art.
—Sebastian Smee, The Atlantic, 16 May 2026
Years of scouring the surface of a rugged landscape like Mars can take a toll on any vehicle – even one like NASA's Curiosity rover specifically designed for the harsh conditions.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 12 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for scouring
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scouring
Verb
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This season, Sugar takes on a new missing persons case, searching for the older brother of an up-and-coming local boxer, while continuing his desperate hunt for his own missing sister.—
Monica Mercuri,
Forbes.com,
1 June 2026
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Always searching, always growing, always going deeper, always chasing things outside his comfort zone.—
Allison DeGrushe,
StyleCaster,
1 June 2026
Verb
-
No one, perhaps, relishes the thought of combing through a credit report, shopping around for car insurance or parsing a bank statement.—
Daniel de Visé,
USA Today,
1 June 2026
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Wiley often wears her hair in a stretched state, combing through her gray coils with a blow dryer before doing a braid-out.—
Annie Blay-Tettey,
Allure,
29 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scouring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scouring. Accessed 6 Jun. 2026.
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