Descry vs Spy - What's the difference?
descry | spy | Related terms |
To see.
To discover (a distant or obscure object) by the eye; to espy; to discern or detect.
* Shakespeare
* Milton
* 1719 (Daniel Defoe), (Robinson Crusoe)
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4
, passage=Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.}}
To discover; to disclose; to reveal.
* Milton
A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To act as a spy.
To spot; to catch sight of.
* Jonathan Swift
* Latimer
To search narrowly; to scrutinize.
* Shakespeare
To explore; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country.
* Bible, Numbers xxi. 32
barf (US), vomit, spew
to barf (US), throw up, vomit, spew (also figurative )
Descry is a related term of spy.
In lang=en terms the difference between descry and spy
is that descry is to discover (a distant or obscure object) by the eye; to espy; to discern or detect while spy is to explore; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country.As verbs the difference between descry and spy
is that descry is to see while spy is to act as a spy.As a noun spy is
a person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).descry
English
Verb
(en-verb)- Edmund, I think, is gone to descry / The strength o' the enemy.
- And now their way to earth they had descried .
- When I had passed the vale where my bower stood
- His purple robe he had thrown aside, lest it should descry him.
External links
* * *Anagrams
*spy
English
Noun
(spies)Travels and travails, passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
Derived terms
* spy ringVerb
- During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon.
- I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here.
- One in reading, skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration.
- Look about with your eyes; spy what things are to be reformed in the church of England.
- It is my nature's plague / To spy into abuses.
- Moses sent to spy Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof.