probing
Americanadjective
noun
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probings
plural
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the act or practice of examining, investigating, or exploring something in a deep or searching way.
Constant probing of the night sky by scientists reveals an abundance of activity within our solar system.
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the act of examining or exploring something by means of a probe or any of various instruments, devices, etc..
Probing of the blocked duct was done under anesthesia.
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Computers. the process of scanning a network, database, webpage, web app, etc., in order to obtain information about its structure and any security weaknesses that could be used to launch an attack: undertaken either maliciously by hostile parties, or diagnostically and preventively by those wishing to improve security.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of probing
First recorded in 1660–70; 2000–05 gauging for def. 3; probe ( def. ) + -ing 2 ( def. ) for the adjective sense; probe ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. ) for the noun senses
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A nurse, who was visibly unsettled and asked not to be identified, told AFP that the hospital was probing the circumstances of the fire and "doesn't want its reputation to be damaged any further".
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
Instead of gently probing nuclei, researchers collide them at the highest energies available and reconstruct their shapes from the patterns left behind.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
However, the protesters say they will not call off demonstrations until India's premier investigative agency begins probing alleged malpractices in other recruitment exams.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
With the Department of Justice, the SEC and state insurance regulators probing Mark Walter’s businesses, the Dodgers owner has a lot on the line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
I search for a way to pull back and be less probing.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
The probings about driver versus three-wood had lost steam.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2015
So were his probings of the court records for murder cases against Jeffrey MacDonald, in his 2012 book “A Wilderness of Error,” and Randall Adams, in the 1988 film “The Thin Blue Line.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2014
His finding echoes the results of similar probings by other researchers into the 2008 statistics.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 26, 2012
Matters of marriage, sex, science and womanhood are raised by Ruhl, a continually inventive playwright whose lyrical sense of the absurd is as acute as her insightful probings into the psyches of her quirky characters.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 28, 2011
The probings, therefore, in what was assumed to be the track of the ball, only increased the unfavorable symptoms.
From Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 by Barkham Burroughs
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
