reconnoiter

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

• intransitive verb To make a preliminary examination of (an area or a group, for example), usually by moving around and observing, in order to gather information, especially for military purposes.
• intransitive verb To make a reconnaissance or preliminary examination.
• noun An act of reconnoitering.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To know again; recognize.
• To examine with the eye; make a preliminary survey of; specifically, to examine or survey, as a tract or region, for military, engineering, or geological purposes. See reconnaissance.
• To make a survey or inspection preliminary to taking some action; examine a position, person, opinion, etc., as a precaution.
• noun A preliminary survey; a reconnaissance.

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

• transitive verb To examine with the eye to make a preliminary examination or survey of; esp., to survey with a view to military or engineering operations.
• transitive verb obsolete To recognize.

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

• verb transitive, intransitive, military To perform a reconnaissance (of an area; an enemy position); to scout with the aim of gaining information.
• noun An act or instance of reconnoitering.

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

• verb explore, often with the goal of finding something or somebody