U

scoping

noun

Slang. the act or practice of eyeing or examining, as in order to evaluate or appreciate.

adjective

of or involving an investigation or discussion to determine the effect a proposed policy or project would have on a community or the local environment: The public is invited to the scoping meeting on the proposed new refinery.

noun

extent or range of view, outlook, application, operation, effectiveness, etc.: an investigation of wide scope.
space for movement or activity; opportunity for operation: to give one’s fancy full scope.
extent in space; a tract or area.
length: a scope of cable.
aim or purpose.
Linguistics, Logic. the range of words or elements of an expression over which a modifier or operator has control: In “old men and women,” “old” may either take “men and women” or just “men” in its scope.
(used as a short form of microscope, oscilloscope, periscope, radarscope, riflescope, telescopic sight, etc.)

verb (used with object), scoped, scop·ing.

Slang. to look at, read, or investigate, as in order to evaluate or appreciate.

Verb Phrases

scope out, Slang.
1. to look at or over; examine; check out: a rock musician scoping out the audience before going on stage.
2. to master; figure out: By the time we’d scoped out the problem, it was too late.

noun

opportunity for exercising the faculties or abilities; capacity for actionplenty of scope for improvement
range of view, perception, or grasp; outlook
the area covered by an activity, topic, etc; rangethe scope of his thesis was vast
nautical slack left in an anchor cable
logic linguistics that part of an expression that is governed by a given operator: the scope of the negation in PV– (q ∧ r) is –(q ∧ r)
informal short for telescope, microscope, oscilloscope
archaic purpose or aim

verb (tr)

informal to look at or examine carefully

n.1“extent,” 1530s, “room to act,” from Italian scopo “aim, purpose, object, thing aimed at, mark, target,” from Latin scopus, from Greek skopos “aim, target, watcher,” from PIE *spek- “to observe” (cf. Sanskrit spasati “sees;” Avestan spasyeiti “spies;” Greek skopein “behold, look, consider,” skeptesthai “to look at;” Latin specere “to look at;” Old High German spehhon “to spy,” German spähen “to spy”). Sense of “distance the mind can reach, extent of view” first recorded c.1600. n.2“instrument for viewing,” 1872, abstracted from telescope, microscope, etc., from Greek skopein “to look” (see scope (n.1)). Earlier used as a shortening of horoscope (c.1600). v.“to view,” 1807, from the source of scope (n.2). Related: Scoped; scoping.