Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Close, careful examination or observation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Close investigation or examination; minute inquiry; critical examination.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun In the early church, the examination in Lent of catechumens, including instruction in and questions upon the creed, accompanied with prayers, exorcisms, and other ceremonies, prior to their baptism on Easter day.
  • noun One of the three methods used in the Roman Catholic Church for electing a Pope.
  • noun In canon law, a ticket or little paper billet on which a vote is written.
  • noun An examination by a competent authority of the votes given or ballots east at an election, for the purpose of rejecting those that are vitiated or imperfect, and thus correcting the poll.
  • noun Synonyms Investigation, Inspection, etc. (see examination), sifting. See search, v.
  • To scrutinize.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To scrutinize.
  • noun Close examination; minute inspection; critical observation.
  • noun (Anc. Church) An examination of catechumens, in the last week of Lent, who were to receive baptism on Easter Day.
  • noun (Canon Law) A ticket, or little paper billet, on which a vote is written.
  • noun (Parliamentary Practice) An examination by a committee of the votes given at an election, for the purpose of correcting the poll.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Intense study of someone or something.
  • noun Thorough inspection of a situation or a case.
  • verb obsolete, rare To scrutinize.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a prolonged intense look
  • noun the act of examining something closely (as for mistakes)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English scrutinie, taking of a formal vote, from Latin scrūtinium, inquiry, search, from scrūtārī, to search, examine, from scrūta, trash.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English scrutiny, from Medieval Latin scrūtinium ("a search, an inquiry"), from Vulgar Latin scrūtārī ("to search or examine thoroughly"), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Late Latin scrūta ("rubbish, broken trash"); or of Germanic origin, related to Old English scrūtnung ("examination, investigation, inquiry, search"), from Old English scrūtnian, scrūdnian ("to examine carefully, scrutinize, consider, investigate"), from Proto-Germanic *skrudōnan, *skruþōnan (“to search, examine”), from Proto-Germanic *skrud-, *skruþ- (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreut- (“to cut”). Compare Old High German skrodōn, scrutōn, scrutilōn ("to research, explore"), Old High German scrod ("a search, scrutiny"), Gothic  (andhruskan, "to investigate, explore"), Old English scrēadian ("to shred, cut up, cut off, peel, pare, prune"). More at shred.

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Examples

  • I would say the class in scrutiny is definitely the beneficiary of theft.

    Hatin’ On Johnny Rawls 2006

  • One aspect of the newly-passed FISA law that deserves a bit of extra scrutiny is the amount of pressure it puts on “minimization procedures,” one of the few points of contact between the surveillance program and the FISA court.

    Minimize Me! 2008

  • BEIJING Airlines are being told to stay away from Beijing's airport during the opening ceremony of the Olympics and further scrutiny is being applied to foreign entertainers in the latest security moves ahead of next month's games.

    Beijing: No flights during Olympics opening 2008

  • An anonymous AFP writer or editor puts the word "scrutiny" in the title and doesn't even bother to interview any other outside experts in the field about what they might think.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • An anonymous AFP writer or editor puts the word "scrutiny" in the title and doesn't even bother to interview any other outside experts in the field about what they might think.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • This kind of scrutiny is easy for researchers to applaud when a news report questions dodgy statistics or dubious claims about uncertainties in evolution.

    Media Maxine 2009

  • This kind of scrutiny is easy for researchers to applaud when a news report questions dodgy statistics or dubious claims about uncertainties in evolution.

    June 2009 Maxine 2009

  • This kind of scrutiny is easy for researchers to applaud when a news report questions dodgy statistics or dubious claims about uncertainties in evolution.

    Magazines Maxine 2009

  • This kind of scrutiny is easy for researchers to applaud when a news report questions dodgy statistics or dubious claims about uncertainties in evolution.

    Websites Maxine 2009

  • This kind of scrutiny is easy for researchers to applaud when a news report questions dodgy statistics or dubious claims about uncertainties in evolution.

    Science Maxine 2009

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