| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| scope |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  sk p |
| NOUN: | 1. The range of one's perceptions, thoughts, or actions. 2. Breadth or opportunity to function. See synonyms at room. 3. The area covered by a given activity or subject. See synonyms at range. 4. The length or sweep of a mooring cable. 5. Informal A viewing instrument such as a periscope, microscope, or telescope. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: scoped, scop·ing, scopes
Slang To examine or investigate. Often used with out: “Their World Wide Web site is, for now, the best place to scope out the future of the media business in cyberspace.” (Marc Gunther, Fortune March 4, 1996). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Italian scopo, aim, purpose, from Greek skopos, target, aim. See spek- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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