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scour
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
scour
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
out
▪ They felt as if they'd been scoured out with a Brillo pad.
■ NOUN
city
▪ Army bomb disposal experts scoured the city for 5 hours, after receiving a coded telephone message.
▪ So in 1990, it began scouring the city for a suitable new location.
country
▪ It was their job to buy horses for the New Model Army and scour the country for food and provisions.
▪ We're scouring the country for some one.
countryside
▪ He peered out through the windscreen and side-windows, scouring the surrounding countryside.
▪ They scoured the countryside for milk, and conjured up their best skill to prepare dainty viands for her little ladyship.
▪ Goblin wolf riders raid and pillage far afield, while outriders scour the surrounding countryside for any sign of enemy armies.
▪ Carey was scouring the countryside for provisions.
▪ In another scavenging operation, a small company called Medway Tin scours the countryside for dumps left by the miners of old.
▪ In spite of the heat, parties in full dress uniform were sent to scour the countryside.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Scour the bowl with a mixture of vinegar and baking soda.
▪ A team of detectives is scouring the area for the murder weapon.
▪ Developers are scouring the country for possible sites for these new superstores.
▪ He spent half an hour scouring the newspaper for any mention of the fire.
▪ I scoured the pots and pans.
▪ Rescue teams scoured the ruins for signs of more victims.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Forensic scientists have scoured the scene but have not come up with any conclusive evidence.
▪ He caught a towel and, dragging his helmet off, scoured his face and his neck.
▪ I rotated the nails so that a cheese paring of wax was scoured from the surface of the drum.
▪ In similar lessons in all sorts of schools, the students go on to scour textbooks and library books for more facts.
▪ Last night Skegness lifeboat and a number of coastal rescue teams were scouring six miles of shoreline.
▪ Potato starch, rather than harmful chemicals, is being used for scouring in the finishing process.
▪ She scours flea markets and will either repair her purchases or leave them, depending on the extent of the damage.
▪ That means either scouring the nation for a candidate of lesser renown, or hiring from within.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scour

Scour \Scour\ (skour), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Scoured; p. pr. & vb. n. Scouring.] [Akin to LG. sch["u]ren, D. schuren, schueren, G. scheuern, Dan. skure; Sw. skura; all possibly fr. LL. escurare, fr. L. ex + curare to take care. Cf. Cure.]

  1. To rub hard with something rough, as sand or Bristol brick, especially for the purpose of cleaning; to clean by friction; to make clean or bright; to cleanse from grease, dirt, etc., as articles of dress.

  2. To purge; as, to scour a horse.

  3. To remove by rubbing or cleansing; to sweep along or off; to carry away or remove, as by a current of water; -- often with off or away.

    [I will] stain my favors in a bloody mask, Which, washed away, shall scour my shame with it.
    --Shak.

  4. [Perhaps a different word; cf. OF. escorre, escourre, It. scorrere, both fr. L. excurrere to run forth. Cf. Excursion.] To pass swiftly over; to brush along; to traverse or search thoroughly; as, to scour the coast.

    Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain.
    --Pope.

  5. To cleanse or clear, as by a current of water; to flush.

    If my neighbor ought to scour a ditch.
    --Blackstone.

    Scouring barrel, a tumbling barrel. See under Tumbling.

    Scouring cinder (Metal.), a basic slag, which attacks the lining of a shaft furnace.
    --Raymond.

    Scouring rush. (Bot.) See Dutch rush, under Dutch.

    Scouring stock (Woolen Manuf.), a kind of fulling mill.

Scour

Scour \Scour\, n.

  1. Diarrh[oe]a or dysentery among cattle.

  2. The act of scouring.

  3. A place scoured out by running water, as in the bed of a stream below a fall.

    If you catch the two sole denizens [trout] of a particular scour, you will find another pair installed in their place to-morrow.
    --Grant Allen.

Scour

Scour \Scour\, v. i.

  1. To clean anything by rubbing.
    --Shak.

  2. To cleanse anything.

    Warm water is softer than cold, for it scoureth better.
    --Bacon.

  3. To be purged freely; to have a diarrh[oe]a.

  4. To run swiftly; to rove or range in pursuit or search of something; to scamper.

    So four fierce coursers, starting to the race, Scour through the plain, and lengthen every pace.
    --Dryden.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
scour

"cleanse by hard rubbing," c.1200, from Middle Dutch scuren, schuren "to polish, to clean," and from Old French escurer, both from Late Latin excurare "clean off," literally "take good care of," from Latin ex- "out" (see ex-) + curare "care for" (see cure (v.)). Possibly originally a technical term among Flemish workmen in England. Related: Scoured; scouring. As a noun, 1610s, from the verb.

scour

"move quickly in search of something," c.1300, probably from Old Norse skyra "rush in," related to skur "storm, shower, shower of missiles" (see shower (n.)). Perhaps influenced by or blended with Old French escorre "to run out," from Latin excurrere (see excursion). Sense probably influenced by scour (v.1).

Wiktionary
scour

n. 1 The removal of sediment caused by swiftly moving water. 2 A place scoured out by running water, as in the bed of a stream below a fall. vb. 1 To clean, polish, or wash something by scrubbing it vigorously. 2 To remove by rubbing or cleansing; to sweep along or off. 3 To search an area thoroughly. 4 (context ambitransitive English) To move swiftly over; to brush along. 5 (context intransitive veterinary medicine English) Of livestock, to suffer from diarrhe

  1. 6 (context transitive veterinary medicine English) To purge. 7 (context obsolete English) To cleanse.

Related phrases:
WordNet
scour

  1. v. examine minutely; "The police scoured the country for the fugitive"

  2. clean with hard rubbing; "She scrubbed his back" [syn: scrub]

  3. rub hard or scrub; "scour the counter tops" [syn: abrade]

  4. rinse, clean, or empty with a liquid; "flush the wound with antibiotics"; "purge the old gas tank" [syn: flush, purge]

scour

n. a place that is scoured (especially by running water)

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Scour

Scour may refer to: __NOTOC__

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "scour".

North, aye, North, through a land accurst, shunned by the scouring brutes, And all I heard was my own harsh word and the whine of the malamutes, Till at last I came to a cabin squat, built in the side of a hill, And I burst in the door, and there on the floor, frozen to death, lay Bill.

Their ghastly antlered heads stood proudly upright, their eyeless sockets scouring the land.

The blizzard was scouring against the walls, and the winds squealed and moaned in the stovepipe.

Horribly the great blizzard, large as the sky, bent over it and scoured with an enormous invisible cloth, round and round on the paper-thin roof, till a hole wore through and squealing, chuckling, laughing a deep Ha!

The blizzard was beating and scouring 267 at the house, the winds were roaring and shrieking.

Stone and Breger are not happy with the offer and they are going to scour the landscape looking for more of a motive.

Provisions ran low upon the third day of our stay in Bridgewater, which was due to our having exhausted that part of the country before, and also to the vigilance of the Royal Horse, who scoured the district round and cut off our supplies.

He had been attacked, flung into a pit by men who had been uncommonly like Panchez and the mestizo guards who had been hired to scour the jungle and keep trouble away.

As it poured down his gullet he felt it scouring him, reducing the untidy tangle of his insides to a minimalist shell.

And Monk could be counted on to scour the bookstalls in Paternoster Row and Westminster Hall, or anywhere else I might see fit to send him.

Wet, warm, pluvial times, the interglacial periods, melted the ice, creating torrents that scoured the mountains and plains and sped off to add their volume to the prodigious south-flowing river.

There are going to be places where the Posties have been scoured off the surface of the Earth.

Where before he had scoured the countryside seeking a figure, or face, a husky arm or elongated sunburnt throat for a statue or painting, now he searched for stonemasons, quarriers from Maiano and Prato, carpenters, brickmakers, mechanics, to stem a war.

As he scoured pots, he likewise and unintentionally scoured his conscience, scoured the calluses from it so that he was resensitized to humanity.

Then their vision was blocked by scaley ribs, rippling by, blue-lit, scouring dust in upon them, choking them with filth and stink.