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It doesn’t require much scouring of our website to see that there are two distinct scour verbs in English. One has meanings relating to cleaning and washing away; that scour, which dates back to at least the early 14th century, probably comes from the Late Latin excurare, meaning “to clean off.” (A related noun scour refers to the action of this type of scouring, or to places that have been scoured, as by running water.) The other verb scour appeared a century earlier, and may come from the Old Norse skūr, meaning “shower.” (Skūr is also distantly related to the Old English scūr, the ancestor of our English word shower.) Many different things can be scoured, such as an area (as in “scoured the woods in search of the lost dog”) or publications (as in “scouring magazine and newspaper articles”).
Synonyms
Examples of scour in a Sentence
Jorge C. Carrasco, New York Times, 30 May 2024
This story—one of many similar tales that environmental historian Vicki Szabo has been scouring over the last three decades—offers a compelling glimpse into Icelanders’ interactions with blue whales.
—Andrew Chapman, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 May 2024
Zoe Denenberg, Bon Appétit, 17 Oct. 2023
Stick to the gentler blue scour pads, or the scrubby side of your sponge, or a Scrub Daddy/Mommy.
—Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 16 Nov. 2020
See all Example Sentences for scour 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scour.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near scour
Cite this Entry
“Scour.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scour. Accessed 9 Jun. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
scour
1 of 3 verbscour
2 of 3 verbscour
3 of 3 nounMedical Definition
scour
1 of 2 intransitive verbscour
2 of 2 noun
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