1. To rub hard or to scrub: The cleaning personnel were scouring the counter tops in the restaurant.
2. To examine minutely or very carefully: The police scoured the country for the two fugitives who broke out of the prison.
3. Etymology: "cleanse by rubbing", from about 1300, from Middle Dutch scuren, "to polish, to clean" and from Old French escurer, both from Late Latin excurare "to clean off"; literally, "to take good care of"; from Latin ex-, "out" + curare, "to care for".