Inspect vs Spy - What's the difference?
inspect | spy | Related terms |
To examine critically or carefully; especially, to search out problems or determine condition; to scrutinize.
To view and examine officially.
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=6 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 )
Inspect is a related term of spy.
As verbs the difference between inspect and spy
is that inspect is to examine critically or carefully; especially, to search out problems or determine condition; to scrutinize 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).inspect
English
Alternative forms
* enspectVerb
(en verb)citation, passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
Derived terms
* inspector * inspectionAnagrams
* *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.