Explore

/ɪkˈsplɔːr/

verb

to travel through (an unfamiliar area) in order to learn about it; to investigate or examine systematically

The word 'explore' originates from the Latin word 'explorare,' which means to investigate, search out, or reconnoiter. It is often used in the context of discovering new places, ideas, or experiences.

Elizabeth longed to explore its windings; but when they had crossed the bridge, and perceived their distance from the house, Mrs. Gardiner, who was not a great walker, could go no farther, and thought only of returning to the carriage as quickly as possible.

Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice

‘But most of all I should like to go walking today and explore the valley.

J. R. R. Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring

She told Tom to go with the kite-line and explore if he chose; but she implored him to come back every little while and speak to her; and she made him promise that when the awful time came, he would stay by her and hold her hand until all was over.

Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Explore the manse and grounds as you like, but on no account stray beyond the walls.

George R. R. Martin

A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five

XXXII “Does not your master give a rout to-night?” Quoth the dark page; “Oh, no!” return’d the Swiss, “Next door but one to us, upon the right, The Magazin des Modes now open is Against the Emperor’s wedding;—and, sir, this My master finds a monstrous horrid bore; As he retired, an hour ago I wis, With his best beard and brimstone, to explore And cast a quiet figure in his second floor.

John Keats

Poetry

After the Wand Dance, Hoggett explains, “wand work becomes much more about the practical.” This dance was the place to “blue sky” what wands could do, and explore the emotional side of learning and using magic.

J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two

“There are avenues to explore, surely; there are gullible fools beyond the reach of the information you have!

Gregory Maguire

Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister

I knew he had left the castle now, and thought to use the opportunity to explore more than I had dared to do as yet.

Bram Stoker

Dracula

But Capys, and the rest of sounder mind, The fatal present to the flames designed, Or to the wat’ry deep; at least to bore The hollow sides, and hidden frauds explore.

Virgil

The Aeneid

But she's going to get out, and she'll fly away, fly away, fly away home, and not long after that there will be an entirely new world to explore, with a new person to love and a new person to be.

Stephen King

Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, Book 6)

Why should one not explore everything, and study everything?

Victor Hugo

Les Misérables

No pieces that looked like parts of this project, but there were so many doors and storerooms to explore.

Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero

What was the meaning of that South-Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s being alone.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

It was in vain he told himself that the matter was none of his business, that to explore the secrets of that surprising door, that mysterious staircase within, would be a piece of unforgivable rudeness and indiscretion.

Aldous Huxley

Crome Yellow

A Noiseless Patient Spider A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass

So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus

They were not permitted to explore the moon.

Vonnegut, Kurt

Slaughterhouse Five

Camel raiding parties, self-contained like ships, might cruise confidently along the enemy’s cultivation-frontier, sure of an unhindered retreat into their desert-element which the Turks could not explore.

T. E. Lawrence

Seven Pillars of Wisdom

“If I were to speak of this dream, to explore these matters of water and dust, snakes and worms, to analyze the atoms which dance in your head as they do in mine—ahh, Puissant Lord, my words would only confuse you and you would insist upon misunderstanding.” “Do you fear that your words might anger me?” Farad’n demanded.

Frank Herbert

Children of Dune

I wonder if I shall ever be allowed to explore it.

John Muir

My First Summer in the Sierra

I’ll go in first and explore, then I’ll whistle to him when I think fit, and you’ll see, he’ll dash in like mad.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

And I have other avenues to explore.” “No,” she said.

Gaiman, Neil

Neverwhere

But Heaven, and all the Greeks, have heard my wrongs; To Heaven, and all the Greeks, redress belongs; Yet this I ask (nor be it ask'd in vain), A bark to waft me o'er the rolling main, The realms of Pyle and Sparta to explore, And seek my royal sire from shore to shore; If, or to fame his doubtful fate be known, Or to be learn'd from oracles alone, If yet he lives, with patience I forbear, Till the fleet hours restore the circling year; But if already wandering in the train Of empty shades, I measure back the main, Plant the fair column o'er the mighty dead, And yield his consort to the nuptial bed."

Homer

The Odyssey

Explore the manse and grounds as you like, but on no account stray beyond the walls.

Martin, George, R. R.

A Dance With Dragons

It was a queer night for anyone to explore a churchyard.

G. K. Chesterton

The Innocence of Father Brown

But, since thou hast vouchsafed Gently, for our instruction, to impart Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned Our knowing, as to highest Wisdom seemed, Deign to descend now lower, and relate What may no less perhaps avail us known: How first began this heaven which we behold Distant so high, with moving fires adorned Innumerable; and this which yields or fills All space, the ambient air wide interfused, Embracing round this florid Earth; what cause Moved the Creator, in his holy rest Through all eternity, so late to build In Chaos; and the work begun how soon Absolved; if unforbid thou may’st unfold What we not to explore the secrets ask Of his eternal empire, but the more To magnify his works the more we know.

John Milton

Paradise Lost

So runs the strange tale, how the lovers twain One sword, one sepulchre, one memory, Slays, and entombs, and brings to life again.607 “Blessed be God,” said Don Quixote when he had heard Don Lorenzo’s sonnet, “that among the hosts there are of irritable poets I have found one consummate one,608 which, señor, the art of this sonnet proves to me that you are!” For four days was Don Quixote most sumptuously entertained in Don Diego’s house, at the end of which time he asked his permission to depart, telling him he thanked him for the kindness and hospitality he had received in his house, but that, as it did not become knights-errant to give themselves up for long to idleness and luxury, he was anxious to fulfill the duties of his calling in seeking adventures, of which he was informed there was an abundance in that neighbourhood, where he hoped to employ his time until the day came round for the jousts at Saragossa, for that was his proper destination; and that, first of all, he meant to enter the cave of Montesinos, of which so many marvellous things were reported all through the country, and at the same time to investigate and explore the origin and true source of the seven lakes commonly called the lakes of Ruidera.609 Don Diego and his son commended his laudable resolution, and bade him furnish himself with all he wanted from their house and belongings, as they would most gladly be of service to him; which, indeed, his personal worth and his honourable profession made incumbent upon them.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Don Quixote