scrutiny

See Also: INTENSITY

1. Approach [society section of Sunday paper] like a lapidopterist advances on butterflies —Shana Alexander
2. [A maitre d’] bent over (his guest list) like a conductor studying a score —Jonathan Valin
3. Carefully surveyed the living room and, like an auctioneer brought in for appraisal, every object it contained —Richard Russo
4. Examine [a face] as though it were a portrait in a public gallery —Ella Leffland
5. Examine like a customs inspector —Anon
6. Examine like a job hunter finecombs the employment ads or a New York apartment hunter finecombs the real estate ads —Anon
7. Examine like a monkey picking fleas —Mike Sommer
8. Examine with care, like a horse player eyeing the “Racing Form” —Shana Alexander
9. Examine with care of diamond dealer examining a rare stone —Anon
10. Explore [feelings] … like someone trying to locate a hollow tooth —Lawrence Durrell
11. His scrutiny was like a well that pulled on you, making you eager to find your own face in the depths down there —Hortense Calisher
12. Investigate … like a burglar twirling the dial of a well-constructed safe, listening for the locks to click and reveal the combination —Mary McCarthy
13. Like a traveller in unfamiliar regions she began to store for future guidance the minutest natural signs —Edith Wharton
14. Look at as does an experienced fish at a purchased fly —Gregory McDonald
15. Looking at it [a letter] as if it were a code in need of breaking —Graham Swift
16. (Should be) noted with care like the names of places passed on an important journey —John McGahern
17. Peered around [the room] like a hungry toad —Harold Adams
18. Pore over … like a Little-Leaguer entranced by a pack of baseball cards —Jill Ciment
19. Pore over like possessed students of cabalist text —Joseph Weizenbaum

    Weizenbaum’s simile referred to the computer enthusiast’s intense absorption.

20. Prodding [in search of something] like a great bird rummaging for seed —Edith Wharton
21. Read their faces like texts and their gestures like punctuation marks —Helen Hudson

    The character thus studying faces in the novel, Criminal Trespass, is not surprisingly, a librarian. The description of the gestures the librarian studies includes another simile: “The way they … yank down the volumes and riffle the contents like the Yellow Pages.”

22. Scrutinize as if he were a new character in a soap opera —Bobbie Ann Mason
23. Scrutinized … with the air of an epicure examining a fly in his vichyssoise —T. Coraghessan Boyle
24. Studied Barksdale’s face, openly, like a man taking inventory —Paige Mitchell
25. Studies me like a teacher trying to decide how to discipline an unruly student —W. P. Kinsella
26. Study [a trip schedule] as though it were a pack of Tarot cards in some tricky configuration —Sue Grafton
27. Studying him like a culture —William Mcllvanney
28. Surveyed [books] like a guard with his flashlight making the midnight rounds —Elizabeth Hardwick
29. Being watched like a rabbit in a laboratory —Willa Cather
30. Watching people, probing like a dentist into their innermost thoughts —Ivan Turgenev
31. Went through everything … like detectives after fingerprints [describing antiques dealers] —Edith Wharton