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scoured

Verb
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Searched or swept over thoroughly; here, moved over the sea in a harsh, searching way.

Detailed Definition
In older or literary usage, to scour can mean to travel or sweep over an area quickly and thoroughly, not just to clean something. The poem uses it in a vivid seafaring context, which may feel unfamiliar to some readers.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea” uses scoured for searching widely and intensely; “They scoured the beach for amber after storm” applies it to a shore; “I scoured the city’s archives for your face” gives the word a figurative quest; “The wind scoured dust from the abandoned road” shows its related sense of scraping clean
Additional Notes
The verb "scoured" in the quoted line is used in a less common literary sense, not the everyday cleaning meaning.; Found in the poem, The Reading Mother by Strickland Gillilan
Also Known As
scrubbed cleansed polished
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