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Your word for today is: explore, v.
explore, v.
Pronunciation:/ɛkˈsplɔə(r)/
Etymology: < French explore-r, < Latin explōrā-re to search out. Usually explained as < ex- out + plōrāre to make to flow, < pluĕre to flow.
1. a. trans. To investigate, seek to ascertain or find out (a fact, the condition of anything). Also with indirect question as obj.1585 Queen Elizabeth I in W. B. Scoones Four Cent. Eng. Lett. (1880) 29Stratagems‥by‥sondry meanes to be explored.
1630 P. Massinger Renegado v. iii. sig. L1,A cunning spie sent to explore The Cities strength, or weakenesse.
1697 Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics ii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 72Let the Learned Gard'ner‥Explore the Nature of each sev'ral Tree.
1715 Pope tr. Homer Iliad I. i. 84Let some Prophet‥Explore the Cause of great Apollo's Rage.
1823 C. Lamb Mackery End in Elia 177Who or what sort of persons inherited Mackery End‥we‥determined some day to explore.
1862 C. Merivale Hist. Rom. under Empire (1871) V. xlii. 165The imperator resolved to explore, disguised‥the real temper of his soldiers.
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b. To search for; to find by searching; to search out. Obs.?1615 G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses (new ed.) ii. 328,I now am bound‥to explore My long-lack'd father.
1700 Dryden tr. Ovid Meleager & Atalanta in Fables 112With his pointed Dart Explores the nearest Passage to his Heart.
1712 Pope Messiah in Spectator No. 349,The good Shepherd‥Explores the lost, the wand'ring Sheep directs.
1769 O. Goldsmith Rom. Hist. I. 255The Alps, over which he was to explore a new passage into Italy.
1822 T. Taylor tr. Apuleius Metamorphosis 59Exploring‥a fit opportunity.
c. To try, make proof of. (A Latinism.)1667 Milton Paradise Lost ii. 632Satan‥toward the Gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight.
2. a. To look into closely, examine into, scrutinize; to pry into (either a material or immaterial object). In later use coloured by association with 3.1599 J. Davies Nosce Teipsum 95Her selfe in instants doth all things explore, For each thing present.
1729 T. Cooke Tales 92Some unexperienc'd Fool her Eyes explore.
1747 J. Wesley Primitive Physic (1762) p. ix,They explored the several Kinds of‥vegetable Substances.
a1800 W. Cowper On Mischievous Bull,Wood-peckers explore the sides Of rugged oaks for worms.
1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India II. v. viii. 683Of no man‥was the public conduct so completely explored.
1825 C. Lamb Superannuated Man in London Mag. May 71,I digress into Soho, to explore a book-stall.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 440 (note),The Dutch archives have been too little explored.
1867 R. W. Emerson May-day 170He looketh seldom in their face, His eyes explore the ground.
b. To examine by touch; to probe (a wound). Cf. exploration n.1b.1767 B. Gooch Pract. Treat. Wounds I. 66The finger is better than any instrument to explore some kinds of wounds.
1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 361The learned finger never need explore Thy vig'rous pulse.
1870 W. C. Bryant tr. Homer Iliad I. iv. 114The physician must explore thy wound.
3. a. esp. To search into or examine (a country, a place, etc.) by going through it; to go into or range over for the purpose of discovery. Fig. phr. to explore every avenue (or to explore avenues), to investigate every possibility.a1616 F. Beaumont Loving at First Sight in Poems (1653),Not caring to observe the wind Or the new sea to explore.
1697 Dryden tr. Virgil Pastorals iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 18Another Typhis shall new Seas explore.
1733 Pope Ess. Man iii. 105Who bid the Stork, Columbus-like, explore Heav'ns not his own?
1781 W. Cowper Retirem. 151The busy race‥explore Each creek.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1783 II. 443[Paraphrasing Johnson:] He‥recommended us to explore Wapping.
1845 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 10It is the old historical lands of Europe that the lover of history longs to explore.
1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle Lands vii. 194We spent a couple of hours‥exploring the ruins.
fig.1868 F. Max Müller Chips III. v. 118He had explored the modern languages of Europe.
1869 J. Martineau Ess. Philos. & Theol. 2nd Ser. 235The Scotch School‥entered the mind to explore it.
1922 G. Edwards From Crow-scaring to Westminster xii. 142,I intended to explore every avenue during the next few days before the final crash came to secure peace.
1926 Sat. Rev. 16 Oct. 446/2He‥explores every avenue which may lead him to a point of vantage whence to view his life in its new meaning.
1927 Rev. Eng. Stud. Oct. 432Our politicians are said to deal with dominant issues and to explore avenues.
1940 N. Mitford Pigeon Pie xv. 232In war-time we are bound to explore every avenue, whether it is likely to be productive of results, or not.
b. intr. To conduct operations in search for.1872 R. B. Smyth Mining Statist. 27A large expenditure of public money in exploring for coal.
1919 M. K. Bradby Psycho-anal. 165Those striking characteristics are on the surface. We do not explore for others less obvious, because these that we see satisfy systems of repressed or under-expressed emotion.
c. To make an excursion; to go on an exploration (to).1816 J. Austen Emma II. xiv. 263While they are with us, we shall explore a great deal.
1816 J. Austen Emma II. xiv. 264We explored to King's-Weston twice last summer.
1924 R. Macaulay Orphan Island ii. 29Wouldn't the Royal Geographical Society finance the expedition? It ought to, as it's to explore to an undiscovered island.
Derivatives
exˈplored adj.1823 C. Lamb Oxf. in Vacation in Elia 21Some rotten archive, rummaged out of some seldom-*explored press.
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