scout
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /skaʊt/
- (Canada) IPA(key): /skʌʊt/
Audio (AU) (file) - Homophone: Scout
- Rhymes: -aʊt
Etymology 1
From Middle English scout, scoult, from Old French escoute (“action of listening”), verbal noun from escouter (“to listen, heed”), from Latin auscultare (“to listen”). The verb comes from the noun.[1]
Noun
scout (plural scouts)
- A person sent out to gain and bring in tidings; especially, one employed in war to gain information about the enemy and ground.
- An act of scouting or reconnoitering.
- Cowper
- while the rat is on the scout
- Cowper
- A member of any number of youth organizations belonging to the international scout movement, such as the Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts of the United States.
- A person who assesses and/or recruits others; especially, one who identifies promising talent on behalf of a sports team.
- 2018 January 1, Donald McRae, “The Guardian footballer of the year 2017: Juan Mata”, in the Guardian:
- We have met twice this year and, during our first interview, Mata spoke evocatively when remembering how, having joined Real Oviedo aged 10 in 1998, he was given a previously unimaginable opportunity. Mata sat in a car park in 2003, when he was 14, and watched his father talking to a Real Madrid scout.
-
- (Britain) A college servant (in Oxford, England or Yale or Harvard), originally implying a male servant, attending to (usually several) students or undergraduates in a variety of ways that includes cleaning; corresponding to the duties of a gyp or possibly bedder at Cambridge University; and at Dublin, a skip.
- (Britain, cricket) A fielder in a game for practice.
- (historical, Britain, up until 1920s) A fighter aircraft.
- (informal) Term of address for a man or boy.
- 1983, Robley Wilson, Dancing for men (page 124)
- "Listen, old scout," Mr. Osborn said solemnly, "you think New York is heartless, but that's not what it is."
- 1983, Robley Wilson, Dancing for men (page 124)
Derived terms
Translations
|
|
|
Verb
scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)
- (transitive, intransitive) To explore a wide terrain, as if on a search; to reconnoiter.
- (transitive) To observe, watch, or look for, as a scout; to follow for the purpose of observation, as a scout.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
- Take more men, and scout him round.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
Derived terms
- scout about
- scout around
- scout out
- scout round
- scout up
Translations
Etymology 2
Of Scandinavian origin. Compare Old Norse skúta, skúti (“taunt”); thus may be related to English shout.
Verb
scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)
- (transitive) To reject with contempt.
- to scout an idea or an apology
- 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 2
- Flout 'em and scout 'em; and scout 'em and flout 'em: / Thought is free.
- Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
- 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.
- (intransitive) To scoff.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, ch. 45
- So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, ch. 45
Translations
|
Etymology 3
Icelandic skta (“a small craft or cutter”)?
Noun
scout (plural scouts)
- (dated) A swift sailing boat.
- Samuel Pepys
- So we took a scout, very much pleased with the manner and conversation of the passengers.
- Samuel Pepys
Etymology 4
Icelandic [Term?], meaning "to jut out".
Noun
scout (plural scouts)
- (archaic) A projecting rock.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)
Etymology 5
Verb
scout (third-person singular simple present scouts, present participle scouting, simple past and past participle scouted)
- (Scotland) To pour forth a liquid forcibly, especially excrement.
See also
Scout (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia scout in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
References
- “scout”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /skɑu̯t/
- Hyphenation: scout
- Rhymes: -ɑu̯t
Italian
Etymology
Clipping of boyscout.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /skau̯t/, [s̪käu̯t̪]
Noun
scout m or f (invariable)
- scout (a member of the international scout movement)
- Synonym: esploratore