• (RP, GA) IPA: /skaʊt/
• (Canada) IPA: [skʌʊt]
• (Australia)

scout (plural scouts)

1. A person sent out to gain and bring in tidings; especially, one employed in war to gain information about the enemy and ground.
2. An act of scouting or reconnoitering.
   • , The Cricket

     while the rat is on the scout

3. A member of any number of youth organizations belonging to the international scout movement, such as the Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts of the United States.
4. A person who assesses and/or recruits others; especially, one who identifies promising talent on behalf of a sports team.
5. (British) A college servant (in Oxford, England or Yale or Harvard), originally implying a male servant, attending to (usually several) students or undergraduates in a variety of ways that includes cleaning; corresponding to the duties of a gyp or possibly bedder at Cambridge University; and at Dublin, a skip.
6. (British, cricket) A fielder in a game for practice.
7. (historical, British, up until 1920s) A fighter aircraft.
8. (informal) Term of address for a man or boy.
   • 1983, Robley Wilson, Dancing for men (page 124)

     "Listen, old scout," Mr. Osborn said solemnly, "you think New York is heartless, but that's not what it is."

• French: éclaireur
• German: Kundschafter, Kundschafterin, Späher, Späherin
• Italian: esploratore
• Portuguese: batedor
• Russian: разве́дчик

• French: reconnaissance
• Italian: ricognizione
• Portuguese: batimento
• Russian: разве́дка

• French: éclaireur, scout
• German: Pfadfinder, Pfadfinderin
• Italian: Scout
• Portuguese: escoteiro
• Russian: ска́ут
• Spanish: scout

• Portuguese: olheiro

scout (scouts, present participle scouting; past and past participle scouted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To explore a wide terrain, as if on a search; to reconnoiter.
2. (transitive) To observe, watch, or look for, as a scout; to follow for the purpose of observation, as a scout.
   • c. 1613 (first performance)​, John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, OCLC 3083972 ↗, Act 5, scene 2:

     Take more men, and scout him round.

• French: aller en reconnaissance, partir en reconnaissance, explorer, reconnaître le terrain
• German: aufklären, auskundschaften, ausspähen, beobachten, erkunden, spähen
• Italian: esplorare, perlustrare
• Portuguese: bater

scout (scouts, present participle scouting; past and past participle scouted)

1. (transitive) To reject with contempt.

   to scout an idea or an apology

   • 1610, Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 3 scene 2

     Flout 'em and scout 'em; and scout 'em and flout 'em: / Thought is free.

   • , Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

     I don't think I had any definite idea where Dora came from, or in what degree she was related to a higher order of beings; but I am quite sure I should have scouted the notion of her being simply human, like any other young lady, with indignation and contempt.

2. (intransitive) To scoff.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, ch. 45

     So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.

• Russian: отверга́ть

scout (plural scouts)

1. (dated) A swift sailing boat.

   • So we took a scout, very much pleased with the manner and conversation of the passengers.

scout (plural scouts)

1. (archaic) A projecting rock.

scout (scouts, present participle scouting; past and past participle scouted)

1. (Scotland) To pour forth a liquid forcibly, especially excrement.

scout (plural scouts)

1. The guillemot.

scout (plural scouts)

1. A member of any of various scouting organizations.
2. A member of one of several army units, such as the Selous Scouts or the Arunachal Scouts.

1. A nickname, used for both genders.