(probes, probing, probed)
1.
If you probe into something, you ask questions or try to discover facts about it.
The more they probed into his background, the more inflamed their suspicions would become...
For three years, I have probed for understanding...
The Office of Fair Trading has been probing banking practices...
The form asks probing questions.
VERB: V into n, V for n, V n, V-ing
•
Probe is also a noun.
...a federal grand-jury probe into corruption within the FDA.
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• probing (probings)
If he remains here, he'll be away from the press and their probings.
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2.
If a doctor or dentist probes, he or she uses a long instrument to examine part of a patient's body.
The surgeon would pick up his instruments, probe, repair and stitch up again...
Dr Amid probed around the sensitive area...
VERB: V, V prep/adv
3.
A probe is a long thin instrument that doctors and dentists use to examine parts of the body.
...a fibre-optic probe.
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4.
If you probe a place, you search it in order to find someone or something that you are looking for.
A flashlight beam probed the underbrush only yards away from their hiding place...
I probed around for some time in the bushes.
VERB: V n, V adv/prep
5.
In a conflict such as a war, if one side probes another side's defences, they try to find their weaknesses, for example by attacking them in specific areas using a small number of troops. (JOURNALISM)
He probes the enemy's weak positions, ignoring his strongholds...
VERB: V n
•
Probe is also a noun.
Small probes would give the allied armies some combat experience before the main battle started.
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6.
A space probe is a spacecraft which travels into space with no people in it, usually in order to study the planets and send information about them back to earth.
N-COUNT: usu n N