Word Direct Answers

What does "scout" mean?

Scout: A person sent out to gain and bring in tidings; especially, one employed in war to gain information of the movements and condition of an enemy. Scouts each coast light-armèd scour, Each quarter, to descry the distant foe. Milton.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A college student's or undergraduate's servant; -- so called in Oxford, England; at Cambridge called a gyp; and at Dublin, a skip. [Cant]
  2. 3.(Criket) A fielder in a game for practice.
  3. 4.The act of scouting or reconnoitering. [Colloq.] While the rat is on the scout. Cowper. -- In a military sense a scout is a soldier who does duty in his proper uniform, however hazardous his adventure. A spy is one who in disguise penetrates the enemies' lines, or lurks near them, to obtain information.
  4. 5.To observe, watch, or look for, as a scout; to follow for the purpose of observation, as a scout. Take more men, And scout him round. Beau. & Fl.
  5. 6.To pass over or through, as a scout; to reconnoiter; as, to scout a country.
  6. 7.To go on the business of scouting, or watching the motions of an enemy; to act as a scout. With obscure wing Scout far and wide into the realm of night. Milton.

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