prospecting

Verb (1)

prospect (third-person singular simple present prospects, present participle prospecting, simple past and past participle prospected)

1. (intransitive) To search, as for gold.
   • Among the ancient sites in the Taklamakan Desert which are frequented by Khotan "treasure seekers," and which the prospecting parties sent out by me had visited, none seemed to offer better opportunities for systematic excavations than the one known to them as Dandan-Uilik.1904, M. A. Stein, “A Journey of Geographical and Archaeological Exploration in Chinese Turkestan”, in Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1903, Washington, D.C....
2. To determine which minerals or metals are present in a location.

Verb (2)

prospect (third-person singular simple present prospects, present participle prospecting, simple past and past participle prospected)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To have or afford a view; to face or look out.
   • This poynte ſemethe as though it woolde inuade the monte Atlas in Aphrica. Foꝛ it pꝛoſpectethe [translating spectat] towarde that parte of Aphꝛike, whiche the poꝛtugales caule Caput Bonæ Sperantiæ.1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “The Seuenth Booke of the Seconde Decade of the Supposed Continente”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of...
2. (obsolete, transitive) To look or face towards; to view.
   • Beynge therfoꝛe ioyfull and gladde of the frendeſhyppe of owre men, he tooke the capitaine by the hand and bꝛought him with certeine of his familiars to the higheſt towre of his palaice, from whenſe they myght proſpecte [translating dispectare] the mayne ſea.1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], translated by Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for]...

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