DCHP-1 Online
scout 
n. a person employed to search out promising mineral properties and to check on the activities of competitors.
- 1924 Already I've been spotted as a scout for a gold-dredging outfit with designs on the Cheena.
- 1952 . . . I asked him to drop a word here and there among the oil-company scouts.
- 1963 Scouts of competing oil companies would have an extremely hard time spying on the project.
- 1924 Already I've been spotted as a scout for a gold-dredging outfit with designs on the Cheena.