SCOUR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Scour

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/skˈaʊər/ /skaʊr/ Listen

verb

Scour v. t. (past & past part. scoured; pres. part. scouring)

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."

4.

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."

5.

To cleanse or clear, as by a current of water; to flush. "If my neighbor ought to scour a ditch."

Scouring barrel, a tumbling barrel. See under Tumbling.

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

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

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

Scour v. i.

1.

To clean anything by rubbing.

2.

To cleanse anything. "Warm water is softer than cold, for it scoureth better."

3.

To be purged freely; to have a diarrhoea.

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."

noun

Scour n.

1.

Diarrhoea 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."

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Etymology of 'Scour'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Scour" Quotes from Famous Books

... that by the date of the fall of Enna more than twenty thousand slaves had perished.[295] Even without this slaughter, the capture of their seaport and their armoury would have been sufficient to break the back of the revolt.[296] It only remained to scour the country with picked bands of soldiers for organised resistance to be shattered, and even for the curse of brigandage to be rooted out for a while. Death was no longer meted out indiscriminately ...

— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... drooped her head for some time. "There's no help," she ventured, "for this illness! but you should likewise make every subsequent preparation, for it would also be well if you could scour it away." ...

— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... Falstaff's "I looked he should have sent me two-and-twenty yards of satin, as I am true knight, and he sends me security!" care for dress is always considered by Shakespere as contemptible; and Mrs. Quickly distinguishes herself from a true fairy by her solicitude to scour the chairs of order—and "each fair instalment, coat, and several crest;" and the association in her mind of the flowers in the ...

— Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) • John Ruskin

... not intimidated by it; and trusting to his accustomed good fortune, and to the courage and fidelity of his troops, he said, "I have, it is true, many conscripts in my army, but they are Frenchmen. Four years ago did I not with a feeble army drive before me hordes of Sardinians and Austrians, and scour the face of Italy? We shall do so again. The sun which now shines on us is the same that shone at Arcola and Lodi. I rely on Massena. I hope he will hold out in Genoa. But should famine oblige him to surrender, I will retake Genoa in the plains ...

— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... thundered at every morning at four and five, by coachmen and chairmen; and since you have had none, my house has been besieged all day by creditors and bailiffs. Then there's the rascal your man; but I will pay the dog, I will scour him. Sir, I am glad you are a witness of his abuses ...

— Miscellanies, Volume 2 (from Works, Volume 12) • Henry Fielding

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