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
The unsheltered count, a complex operation running late into the night with numerous teams of volunteers scouring the county, was just such an activity.
—
Joseph States, Chicago Tribune, 9 Feb. 2026
When scouring this part of charity shops, my philosophy is more about quality rather than just function.
—Jennifer Prince, Southern Living, 8 Feb. 2026
The car-sized robot is one of two rovers that have spent years scouring the surface of our planetary neighbor searching for any sign that Mars was ever home to life.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 4 Feb. 2026
The majority of these trades were made between the franchise tag deadline and the early portion of free agency to take advantage of teams scouring the market for a specific position.
—Paul Dehner Jr, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scouring
Joseph States, Chicago Tribune, 9 Feb. 2026
When scouring this part of charity shops, my philosophy is more about quality rather than just function.
—Jennifer Prince, Southern Living, 8 Feb. 2026
The car-sized robot is one of two rovers that have spent years scouring the surface of our planetary neighbor searching for any sign that Mars was ever home to life.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 4 Feb. 2026
The majority of these trades were made between the franchise tag deadline and the early portion of free agency to take advantage of teams scouring the market for a specific position.
—Paul Dehner Jr, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scouring
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scouring
Verb
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Schacht, a lean clinical psychologist with boyish features, has spent much of his career searching for medications to treat alcohol addiction.—
Dhruv Khullar,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
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The bodycam video was an eye-opening look at the frightening aftermath of the Brown campus shooting when police were searching room-by-room for the suspect, trying to comfort and care for terrified students, and trying to coordinate with campus police to get past locked doors.—
Corky Siemaszko,
NBC news,
9 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Planetary scientist Jeff Plescia of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory soon began to search the LROC imagery for Soviet landers, combing Oceanus Procellarum despite knowing that success was unlikely.—
Ilya Ferapontov,
Scientific American,
5 Feb. 2026
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Pima County sheriffs and the FBI returned to Nancy Guthrie's home Wednesday evening, putting up crime scene tape and combing through the property.—
Sarah Lynch Baldwin,
CBS News,
5 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scouring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scouring. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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