probe

For verb: borrowed from Latin probare (“to test, examine, prove”), from probus (“good”).

For noun: borrowed from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from probare (“to test, examine, prove”); Doublet of proof. Compare Spanish tienta (“a surgeon's probe”), from tentar (“try, test”); see tempt.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɹəʊb/

  • Audio (UK)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹoʊb/
• Rhymes: -əʊb

probe (plural probes)

1. (surgery) Any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc. [from 15th c.]
   1. (comedy, fiction) An anal probe, a fictional instrument commonly used by aliens on abducted humans.
      • 2004 August 2, Bayard Russell, nonemorecomic‎:

        You know, XR178.9, we haven't done any anal probes in a while.

2. (figuratively) Something which penetrates something else, as though to explore; something which obtains information. [from 17th c.]
3. An act of probing; a prod, a poke. [from 19th c.]
4. (figuratively) An investigation or inquiry. [from 20th c.]

   They launched a probe into the cause of the accident.

5. (aeronautics) A tube attached to an aircraft which can be fitted into the drogue from a tanker aircraft to allow for aerial refuelling. [from 20th c.]
6. (sciences) A small device, especially an electrode, used to explore, investigate or measure something by penetrating or being placed in it. [from 20th c.]

   Insert the probe into the soil and read the temperature.

7. (astronautics) A small, usually uncrewed, spacecraft used to acquire information or measurements about its surroundings. [from 20th c.]
8. (game of Go) a move with multiple answers seeking to make the opponent choose and commit to a strategy
9. (biochemistry) Any group of atoms or molecules radioactively labeled in order to study a given molecule or other structure

• (game of go) yosu-miru

• probe-and-drogue

probe (third-person singular simple present probes, present participle probing, simple past and past participle probed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To explore, investigate, or question
   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:

     the growing disposition to probe the legality of all acts of the crown

   • 2019, Chris Meyer, (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, page 116:

     It was exhilarating to watch him share a meal and then probe deeper into the cultures, the politics, and the heartbeat of the people of the city or country he was in. He seemed so learned, but not in any pretentious way.

   If you probe further, you may discover different reasons.

2. (transitive) To insert a probe into.

• probable
• probesome
• prove
• proof
• probity
• probation

• probe in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “probe”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• Pober, rebop

probe (epicene, plural probes)

1. poor

• probitú

• Audio

  (file)

probe

1. inflection of proben:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈprɔ.be/
• Rhymes: -ɔbe
• Hyphenation: prò‧be

probe

1. feminine plural of probo

probē (comparative probius, superlative probissimē)

1. well, rightly, properly, correctly, fitly, opportunely, excellently

probe

1. vocative masculine singular of probus

• “probe”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “probe”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• probe in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

probe (plural probes)

1. Obsolete spelling of pobre