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English (UK)
Cambridge Dictionary Online

Meaning of probe in English

probe
verb [ I or T ]
uk
/prəʊb/ us
/proʊb/
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to try to discover information that other people do not want you to know, by asking questions carefully and not directly:
The interviewer probed deep into her private life.
Detectives questioned him for hours, probing for any inconsistencies in his story.
The article probes (= tries to describe and explain) the mysteries of nationalism in modern Europe.
to examine something with a tool, especially in order to find something that is hidden:
They probed in/into the mud with a special drill.
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probe
noun [ C ]
uk
/prəʊb/ us
/proʊb/
an attempt to discover information by asking a lot of questions:
an FBI probe into corruption
a Justice Department probe into the Democrats' fund raising
medical   specialized
a long, thin metal tool used by doctors to examine inside someone
science   specialized
a device that is put inside something to test or record information
See also
space probe
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(Definition of probe from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

probe | American Dictionary

probe
verb [ I/T ]
us
/proʊb/
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to search into or examine something:
[ I ] Investigators are probing into new evidence in the case.
To probe something with a tool is to examine it:
[ T ] Using a special instrument, the doctor probed the wound for the bullet.
probe
noun [ C ]
us
/proʊb/
a careful and detailed examination:
The probe explored allegations of corruption in the police department.
A probe is also a long, thin tool used by doctors in medical examinations or operations.
(Definition of probe from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

probe | Business English

probe
noun [ C ]
uk
/prəʊb/ us
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the process of asking questions and examining facts in a situation, often in order to discover information that someone may be hiding:
corruption/criminal/federal probe Alarm bells rang around the City after the investment bank revealed it had widened its accounting probes.
a probe into sth The fund manager was arrested following a probe into alleged corruption.
launch/conduct/open a probe The Swiss Banking Commission is conducting a probe into possible insider dealing.
probe
verb [ I or T ]
uk
/prəʊb/ us
to try to discover information about a situation by asking questions and examining facts:
probe into sth High-end investors began to probe into the fund's performance and demanded better returns.
He says the problems prompted him as a journalist to probe deeper, even after the issues disappeared from the media.
(Definition of probe from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of probe

probe
The vertical displacement of this probe was detected by a linear displacement transducer.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Otherwise, no probing took place in response to misspellings.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Both the series of priming words and the probe word were presented aurally.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Comparing the signals from the four deepest probes, only small pressure differences are observed.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
At least one of the probes is a species that is entirely excluded from lo domains (quenching curve indicated by asterisk).
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Now, not only was the dramatic content of the written play probing the listener's intellect, but strange new sounds were stretching the imagination.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Across both probes, word type resulted in a main effect, with children from all three groups earning higher scores for verbs than nouns.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The probe reduces the local radial electric field so that the beam magnetic force predominates.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
It can be equipped with different types of probes such that both electric and magnetic fields can be measured in a wide frequency range.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
There might be reason to probe a little further with a surrogate decisionmaker who is refusing pain medications on behalf of a patient.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
This task is believed to probe the subjects' ability to assign -roles to positions where the manipulated variable is syntactic structure.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
For this reason a probe sampling plan is advised.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Indeed, for a simple probe we already (as stated) possess the technology to launch such a vehicle.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These are not seen in this case due to averaging of the gradients along the probing path of the laser beam.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In the second part, the measured densities are under estimated because of the deflection of the probe light.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
See all examples of probe
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
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Translations of probe

in Chinese (Traditional)
盤問, 追問, 探究…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
盘问, 追问, 探究…
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in Spanish
investigar, explorar, rastrear…
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in Portuguese
investigar, explorar, procurar…
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in more languages
in Turkish
in French
in Dutch
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Ukrainian
araştırmak, soruşturmak, tetkik etmek…
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sonde, enquête, enquêter (sur)…
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sonde, onderzoek, onderzoeken…
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sonda, průzkum, vyšetřování…
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sonde, undersøgelse, snage…
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alat pemeriksa luka, penyelidikan, menyelidiki…
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เครื่องมือสำหรับแหย่ตรวจบาดแผล, การสืบสวน, สืบสวน…
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cái que thăm, sự điều tra, điều tra…
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wnikać, badać, zagłębiać się w…
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sond, undersökning, undersöka…
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jarum perak panjang, penyiasatan, membuat penyiasatan…
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die Sonde, die Untersuchung, eindringen…
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sonde, undersøkelse, gransking…
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зонд, розслідування, досліджувати…
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