noun

• (Oxford University, modern) A housekeeper or domestic cleaner, generally female, employed by one of the constituent colleges of Oxford University to clean rooms; generally equivalent to a modern bedder at Cambridge University.
• (Oxford University, Harvard University, Yale University, historical) A domestic servant, generally male, who would attend (usually several) students in a variety of ways, including cleaning; generally equivalent to a gyp at Cambridge University or a skip at Trinity College, Dublin.
  "He has also been good enough to recommend to me many tradesmen who are ready to supply these articles in any quantities; each of whom has been here already a dozen times, cap in hand, and vowing that it is quite immaterial when I pay—which is very kind of them; but, with the highest respect for friend Perkins (my scout) and his obliging friends, I shall make some enquiries before "letting in" with any of them."
• (UK, cricket) A fielder in a game for practice.
• (historical, UK, up until 1920s) A fighter aircraft.

verb

• (transitive, intransitive) To explore a wide terrain, as if on a search.
  "An hundred horeſmen of my companie Scowting abroad vpon theſe champion plaines, Haue view’d the army of the Scythians, Which make report it far exceeds the Kings."
• (transitive) To observe, watch, or look for, as a scout; to follow for the purpose of observation, as a scout.
  "Take more men, and scout him round."

verb

• (transitive) To reject with contempt.
  "to scout an idea or an apology"
• (transitive) To reject the ideas or beliefs of (a person).
  "Two months ago I should have scouted as mad or drunk the man who had dared tell me the like."
• (intransitive) To scoff.
  "So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory."

noun

• (dated) A swift sailing boat.
  "So we took a scout, very much pleased with the manner and conversation of the passengers."