vet
verb

- to examine something or someone carefully to make certain that they are acceptable or suitable

noun

- veterinary surgeon (US veterinarian), a person with a medical degree trained to take care of the health of animals

- the office where a vet works (also called "the vet's)

- a person who has served in the armed forces (short for veteran)

(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

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WORD ORIGIN

To vet was originally a horse racing term referring to the requirement that a horse be checked for health and soundness by a veterinarian before being allowed to race. Thus, it has taken the general meaning of to "check, examine."

It is a figurative contraction of veterinarian, a term that originated in the mid-17th century. The colloquial abbreviation dates to the 1860s. The verb form of the word, meaning "to treat an animal," followed several decades later (He vetted the stallion before the race). By the early 1900s, vet had begun to be used as a synonym for evaluate, especially in the context of searching for flaws.

In the U.S., candidates for political office are meant to be thoroughly vetted. Independent committees are charged with looking into such things as a candidate's finances, foreign interests, personal conduct, etc. Many people have been asking whether the U.S. vetting process is working as it should.

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The term vetting is also used in other fields:

- Journalism: sometimes called fact-checking, articles or stories must be vetted to ensure accuracy.

- Software: the process of vetting code refers to ensuring a build of software meets a set of requirements before it is passed to the quality assurance environment for further testing.

- Finance: vetting can refer to the process of analysing stocks, bonds and any other securities or financial instruments before committing money.

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SYNONYMS

appraise, assay, audit, canvass, case, check, check out, chew over, consider, criticize, delve into, dig into, explore, eye, finger, frisk, go into, go over, go through, gun, inquire, inspect, investigate, look over, look see, parse, pat down, peruse, pick at, ponder, pore over, probe, prospect, prove, research, review, scan, scope, screen, scrutinise, search into, sift, size up, study, survey, sweep, take stock of, try, turn over, view, weigh, winnow

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today, say something like:

"I would recommend VETTING him more thoroughly before offering him the job."