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by aljp 2710 days ago
To troll originally meant to "carefully and systematically search an area for something." Perhaps a bit of an archaic definition nowadays, but older or more literary people would probably understand it's intent in this context.
1 comments

The word you are thinking of is trawl.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trawl

And the “search thoroughly” meaning for that is current, not archaic.

I wasn't thinking of trawl, in my mind trawling is a method of fishing, such as "Trawling for shrimp". Interestingly, the second definition on that page references "Troll". Following that link, it says down the page "SEARCH, LOOK; trolling for sponsors" and "to search in or at; trolls flea markets for bargains". Perhaps both would work in the above context, however I would prefer trolling over trawling.