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Seek vs Discover - What's the difference?

seek | discover |

As verbs the difference between seek and discover

is that seek is to try to find, to look for, to search while discover is to remove the cover from; to uncover (a head, building etc.).

As a proper noun Discover is

Discover Card, a brand of credit card.

seek

English

Verb

  • (lb) To try to find, to look for, to search.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
  • (label) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
  • :
  • *Bible, (w) xi. 16
  • *:Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.
  • *1960 , (Lobsang Rampa), :
  • *:“My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.
  • (lb) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
  • :
  • *1880 , , :
  • *:But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.
  • *1886 , Constantine Popoff, translation of (Leo Tolstoy)'s :
  • *:I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
  • To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
  • :
  • *, Bk.V:
  • *:Ryght so he sought towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes
  • (lb) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.
  • *:
  • *:Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
  • *1726 (tr.), (Alexander Pope), ''(Homer)'s (Odyssey), Book II, line 33
  • *:Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains
  • Quotations

    Synonyms

    * look for * search

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    discover

    English

    Alternative forms

    * discovre (obsolete)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To remove the cover from; to uncover (a head, building etc.).
  • To expose, uncover.
  • :
  • (chess) To create by moving a piece out of another piece's line of attack.
  • :
  • (archaic) To reveal (information); to divulge, make known.
  • :
  • *Shakespeare
  • *:Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover / The several caskets to this noble prince.
  • *Francis Bacon
  • *:Prosperity doth best discover' vice; but adversity doth best ' discover virtue.
  • (obsolete) To reconnoitre, explore (an area).
  • *, Bk.V, ch.ix:
  • *:they seyde the same, and were aggreed that Sir Clegis, Sir Claryon, and Sir Clement the noble, that they sholde dyscover the woodys, bothe the dalys and the downys.
  • To find or learn something for the first time.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism.}}
  • (obsolete) To manifest without design; to show; to exhibit.
  • *C. J. Smith
  • *:The youth discovered a taste for sculpture.
  • *1806 , Alexander Hunter, Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ , p.125:
  • *:The English Cooks keep all their Spices in separate boxes, but the French Cooks make a spicey mixture that does not discover a predominancy of any one of the spices over the others.
  • Synonyms

    * (expose something previously covered) expose, reveal, uncover * (find something for the first time) come across, find

    Antonyms

    * (expose something previously covered) conceal, cover, cover up, hide

    Derived terms

    * discovery * discovered attack * discovered check

    See also

    * invent * detect * find * stumble upon