scout

Universal Words noun, verb noun 1 (the Scouts) [pl.] an organization (officially called the Scout Association) originally for boys, which trains young people in practical skills and does a lot of activities with them, for example camping: to join the Scouts 2 (BrE) a boy or girl who is a member of the Scouts: Both my brothers were scouts. * a scout troop seealsoBOYSCOUT, GUIDE compareBROWNIE 3 a person, an aircraft, etc. sent ahead to get information about the enemy's position, strength, etc. 4 = TALENTSCOUT verb 1 ~ (around) (for sb/sth) to search an area or various areas in order to find or discover sth: [VN] They scouted the area for somewhere to stay the night. * [V] The kids were scouting around for wood for the fire. * a military scouting party 2 to look for sports players, actors, musicians, etc. who have special ability, so you can offer them work: [V] He scouts for Manchester United. [also VN] PHRASALVERBS scout sth<->out to find out what an area is like or where sth is, by searching: We went ahead to scout out the lie of the land.