Sleuth vs Spy - What's the difference?
sleuth | spy |
(obsolete) An animal’s trail or track.
(archaic) A sleuth-hound; a bloodhound.
A detective.
* 1908 , (Frank L. Baum), Aunt Jane’s Nieces at Millville
(transitive) To act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime.
* 1922 , , The Secret Adversary
(obsolete, uncountable) Slowness; laziness, sloth.
(rare) A collective term for a group of bears.
* 1961 , , A Passport Secretly Green , p.89
* 1995 , , The Girl Sleuth , p.13
* 2007 , , The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses , p.200
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 )
As nouns the difference between sleuth and spy
is that sleuth is (obsolete) an animal’s trail or track or sleuth can be (obsolete|uncountable) slowness; laziness, sloth while 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).As verbs the difference between sleuth and spy
is that sleuth is (transitive) to act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime while spy is to act as a spy.sleuth
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (Norwegian slo).Noun
(en noun)- Do ye want me to become a sleuth , or engage detectives to track the objects of your erroneous philanthropy?
Synonyms
* (detective) detectiveVerb
(en verb)- We must discover where he lives, what he does — sleuth him, in fact!
Synonyms
* shadowEtymology 2
From (etyl) , corresponding to (slow) + (-th).Noun
(en noun)- As quietly as if I were practicing to join a sleuth of bears , I crept out the door and went on home, eventually winding up in the garage…
- If these dainty adventurers weren’t being chased by a sleuth of bears or bogeys, they were being captured by Gypsies or thieves.
- From the darkness came the howls of routs of wolves and bands of coyotes, the rumbling growls of a sleuth of bears or the bugles of a gang of elk.
Synonyms
* (sloth) idleness, inertia, laziness, lethargy, sloth, slothfulness * (collective term for a group of bears) slothSee also
* sloth *Anagrams
* English collective nounsspy
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.