All 5 Uses of
probe
in
The Purloined Letter
- The cushions we probed with the fine long needles you have seen me employ.
*probed = investigated
- I presume you looked to the mirrors, between the boards and the plates, and you probed the beds and the bed-clothes, as well as the curtains and carpets.†
- Some five or six volumes, just from the hands of the binder, we carefully probed, longitudinally, with the needles.†
- What is all this boring, and probing, and sounding, and scrutinizing with the microscope and dividing the surface of the building into registered square inches—what is it all but an exaggeration of the application of the one principle or set of principles of search, which are based upon the one set of notions regarding human ingenuity, to which the Prefect, in the long routine of his duty, has been accustomed?†
- He could not, I reflected, be so weak as not to see that the most intricate and remote recess of his hotel would be as open as his commonest closets to the eyes, to the probes, to the gimlets, and to the microscopes of the Prefect.†
Definition:
-
(probe) to investigate; or an investigation
or:
any of various instrument used for investigationinstruments such as:- an instrument to measure electronic voltage
- a surgical tool used for examination
- an unmanned spacecraft used for exploration