Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Scour

Scour (skour) , transitive verb

[Akin to LG. schuren, Dutch schuren, schueren, German scheuern, Danish skure; Swedish skura; all possibly from Late Latin escurare, from Latin ex + curare to take care. Compare Cure.]

1.
To rub hard with something rough, as sand or Bristol brick, especially for the purpose of cleaning; to clean by friction; to make clean or bright; to cleanse from grease, dirt, etc., as articles of dress.
2.
To purge; as, to scour a horse.
3.
To remove by rubbing or cleansing; to sweep along or off; to carry away or remove, as by a current of water; -- often with off or away.
[I will] stain my favors in a bloody mask, Which, washed away, shall scour my shame with it. — Shakespeare
4.
To pass swiftly over; to brush along; to traverse or search thoroughly; as, to scour the coast.
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain. — Pope
5.
To cleanse or clear, as by a current of water; to flush.
If my neighbor ought to scour a ditch. — Blackstone
Collocations (4)
Scouring barrel , a tumbling barrel. See under Tumbling.
Scouring cinder (Metallurgy) , a basic slag, which attacks the lining of a shaft furnace. — Raymond
Scouring rush (Botany) , See Dutch rush, under Dutch.
Scouring stock (Woolen Manufacturing) , a kind of fulling mill.

Scour , intransitive verb

1.
To clean anything by rubbing. — Shakespeare
2.
To cleanse anything.
Warm water is softer than cold, for it scoureth better. — Bacon
3.
To be purged freely; to have a diarrhoea.
4.
To run swiftly; to rove or range in pursuit or search of something; to scamper.
So four fierce coursers, starting to the race, Scour through the plain, and lengthen every pace. — Dryden

Scour , noun

1.
Diarrhoea or dysentery among cattle.
2.
The act of scouring.
3.
A place scoured out by running water, as in the bed of a stream below a fall.
If you catch the two sole denizens [trout] of a particular scour, you will find another pair installed in their place to-morrow. — Grant Allen