Examine

//ɪɡˈzæmɪn// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act of examining. informal

    "Soutar scratched the back of his neck then had a quick examine of his nails. Deep-ingrained purple they were."

Verb
  1. 1
    To observe or inspect carefully or critically.

    "He examined the crime scene for clues."

  2. 2
    consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning wordnet
  3. 3
    To check the health or condition of something or someone.

    "The doctor examined the patient."

  4. 4
    question closely wordnet
  5. 5
    To determine the aptitude, skills or qualifications of someone by subjecting them to an examination.
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    question or examine thoroughly and closely wordnet
  2. 7
    To interrogate.

    "The witness was examined under oath."

  3. 8
    observe, check out, and look over carefully or inspect wordnet
  4. 9
    put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
analyzeanalyzecanvasspore overprobeprobe

Example

More examples

"She was very shy about her emergency problem, and asked the gynecologist to please examine her."

Etymology

From Middle English examinen, examenen, from Old French examiner, from Latin exāmināre.

Related phrases

cross-examinere-examinelook at

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.