Crossword clues for scouring
The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
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.
To purge; as, to scour a horse.
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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. -
[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. -
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.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The act of cleaning a surface by rubbing it with a brush, soap and water. 2 (context of livestock English) (l en diarrhea Diarrhea). vb. (present participle of scour English)
WordNet
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "scouring".
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.
The blizzard was beating and scouring 267 at the house, the winds were roaring and shrieking.
As it poured down his gullet he felt it scouring him, reducing the untidy tangle of his insides to a minimalist shell.
Then their vision was blocked by scaley ribs, rippling by, blue-lit, scouring dust in upon them, choking them with filth and stink.
After the wool has been through these scouring liquors it is thrown on a scray to drain, and is next placed in cisterns which have perforated false bottoms.
But she remembered that Jem Sparkins was also scouring the village for Val.
When it came, it was cold, the cheese unmelted, and the patty of meat resembling nothing so much as a dirty scouring pad.
Gray clouds scudded across the eastern sky, chased by the howling wind that swirled through the courtyard like a venging wraith, slapping shutters and scouring the frozen earth of all debris.
He had holly and mistletoe flown in and kept in the refrigerator until it was time to put them up, and Alberta entered into the spirit of the season by scouring cookbooks for traditional Christmas recipes.
Aerosol sprays, asbestos, fiberglass, building materials of various types, dry cleaning fluids, spot removers, rug and upholstery cleaners, fabric finishes and cements, antistatic agents and fabric softeners, shoe-care products, spray starch, flame retardant, furniture and floor products, detergent soaps, lead soldered pipes, gasoline, oven cleaners, drain cleaners, bleaches, toilet bowl cleaners, window cleaners, scouring powders, plastics of various types and many more common household products may injure or kill.
With her lungs locked tight, and the Mist of biomolecules and nanomachinery that suffused her body eagerly scouring for damage, she was in no danger.
To write another word seemed beyond the power of human ingenuity, and for an hour or more Condy would sit scowling at the half-written page, gnawing his nails, scouring his hair, dipping his pen into the ink-well, and squaring himself to the sheet of paper, all to no purpose.
Then it was related with sorrow, that several similar bands were scouring the gold-fields in all directions and in the name of the committee of the Eureka stockade, under cover pressing for fire-arms and ammunition, plundered the most respectable stores of all they could lay their hands upon.