scour
n.a very thorough search for something. You use this when you are looking for a specific person or thing with great effort.
n.a thorough search or investigation, often implying a systematic or exhaustive effort to find something.
“The police conducted a thorough scour of the neighborhood.”
“After the storm, the coast guard launched a massive scour of the shoreline to find any missing equipment.”
“The historian's life's work was a meticulous scour of the archives, uncovering documents that had been hidden for centuries and rewriting the narrative of the era.”
“His team scoured the South for suitable candidates who could apply to professional schools—and who, if they became plaintiffs, wouldn’t disappear.”
“Photograph: Social Media/Reuters Private recruiters and public-sector employees scour social media for candidates, while advertisements for military contracts have become ubiquitous online.”
From Middle English scǒuren (“to polish, scour; to clean; to beat, whip”), from Middle Dutch scuren, schuren (“to clean; to polish”) or Middle Low German schǖren, of uncertain origin but probably from Old French escurer, from Medieval Latin scūrō, escūrō, excūrō (“to clean off”), from ex- (“thoroughly”) + cūrō (“to arrange, see to, take care of”), from cūra (“care, concern”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeys- (“to heed”)) + -ō. The word is cognate with Danish skure, Middle High German schüren, schiuren (modern German scheuern (“to scour, scrub; to chafe”)), Norwegian skura (“to scrub”), Swedish skura, Catalan escurar.
From Middle English scǒuren, scure, skoure (“to move quickly; to travel around in search of enemies”), from scǒur (“attack, conflict; pang of emotional suffering”), from Old Norse skýra (“to rush in”) and skúr (“a shower; a shower of missiles”), perhaps influenced by the verb scǒuren: see etymology 1.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.