SCOUT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Scout mean? 

• SCOUT (noun)
  The noun SCOUT has 4 senses:

1. a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event

2. a Boy Scout or Girl Scout

3. someone employed to discover and recruit talented persons (especially in the worlds of entertainment or sports)

4. someone who can find paths through unexplored territory

  Familiarity information: SCOUT used as a noun is uncommon.

• SCOUT (verb)
  The verb SCOUT has 1 sense:

1. explore, often with the goal of finding something or somebody

  Familiarity information: SCOUT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCOUT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

lookout; lookout man; picket; scout; sentinel; sentry; spotter; watch

Hypernyms ("scout" is a kind of...):

security guard; watcher; watchman (a guard who keeps watch)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A Boy Scout or Girl Scout

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Scout" is a kind of...):

female child; girl; little girl (a youthful female person)

boy; male child (a youthful male person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Scout"):

Boy Scout (a boy who is a member of the Boy Scouts)

Girl Scout (a girl who is a member of the Girl Scouts)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone employed to discover and recruit talented persons (especially in the worlds of entertainment or sports)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

scout; talent scout

Hypernyms ("scout" is a kind of...):

recruiter (someone who supplies members or employees)

Domain category:

athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Derivation:

scout (explore, often with the goal of finding something or somebody)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Someone who can find paths through unexplored territory

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

guide; pathfinder; scout

Hypernyms ("scout" is a kind of...):

expert (a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scout"):

hunting guide (guide to people hunting in unfamiliar territory)

trailblazer (someone who marks a trail by leaving blazes on trees)

Instance hyponyms:

Sacagawea; Sacajawea (the Shoshone guide and interpreter who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition part of the way)

Derivation:

scout (explore, often with the goal of finding something or somebody)

• SCOUT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they scout    ... he / she / it scouts   
Past simple: scouted   
Past participle: scouted   
-ing form: scouting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Explore, often with the goal of finding something or somebody

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

reconnoiter; reconnoitre; scout

Hypernyms (to "scout" is one way to...):

observe (watch attentively)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sentence examples:

The men scout the area for animals
The men scout for animals in the area

Derivation:

scout (someone who can find paths through unexplored territory)

scout (someone employed to discover and recruit talented persons (especially in the worlds of entertainment or sports))

scouter (an adult member of the Boy Scouts movement)

scouting (exploring in order to gain information)

 Context examples 

I have just returned from a small scouting expedition, and everything is favourable.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The scientists will search for traces of water when they scout the surface for a sample site.

(NASA to Map the Surface of an Asteroid, NASA)

A scout was sent flying with a message to the camp, and Sir Hugh, with his two hundred men, thundered off to the rescue.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After the initial detections of the comet, Scout system, which is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, automatically flagged the object as possibly being interstellar.

(Newly Discovered Comet Is Likely Interstellar Visitor, NASA)

Designated 2014 HQ124, the asteroid was discovered April 23, 2014, by NASA's NEOWISE mission, a space telescope adapted for scouting the skies for asteroids and comets.

(Asteroid discovered by NASA to pass Earth safely, NASA)

We even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our very eyes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But no thing of fear pounced out, and when he had gained the inside he scouted carefully around, looking at it and finding it not.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Mrs. Weston proposed having no regular supper; merely sandwiches, &c., set out in the little room; but that was scouted as a wretched suggestion.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

We passed very slowly through the woods, partly because Lord Roxton acted as scout before he would let us advance, and partly because at every second step one or other of our professors would fall, with a cry of wonder, before some flower or insect which presented him with a new type.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I don't think I had any definite idea where Dora came from, or in what degree she was related to a higher order of beings; but I am quite sure I should have scouted the notion of her being simply human, like any other young lady, with indignation and contempt.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)