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Spy vs Peer - What's the difference?

spy | peer |

In intransitive terms the difference between spy and peer

is that spy is to search narrowly; to scrutinize while peer is to look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.

spy

English

Noun

(spies)
  • 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= 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 ring

    Verb

  • To act as a spy.
  • During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon.
  • To spot; to catch sight of.
  • I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • One in reading, skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration.
  • * Latimer
  • Look about with your eyes; spy what things are to be reformed in the church of England.
  • To search narrowly; to scrutinize.
  • * Shakespeare
  • It is my nature's plague / To spy into abuses.
  • To explore; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country.
  • * Bible, Numbers xxi. 32
  • Moses sent to spy Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof.

    Derived terms

    * spy on

    See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * ---- ==Norwegian Bokmål==

    Noun

  • barf (US), vomit, spew
  • Verb

  • to barf (US), throw up, vomit, spew (also figurative )
  • Synonyms

    * (l)

    References

    * ----

    peer

    English

    (wikipedia peer)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
  • * Shakespeare
  • peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads
  • * Coleridge
  • as if through a dungeon grate he peered
  • * 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
  • He walked slowly past the gate and peered through a narrow gap in the cedar hedge. The girl was moving along a sanded walk, toward a gray, unpainted house, with a steep roof, broken by dormer windows.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6
  • He would peek into the curtained windows, or, climbing upon the roof, peer down the black depths of the chimney in vain endeavor to solve the unknown wonders that lay within those strong walls.
  • to come in sight; to appear.
  • * Shakespeare
  • So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
  • * Ben Jonson
  • See how his gorget peers above his gown!

    Etymology 2

    From Anglo-Norman peir , (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level equal (to that of something else).
  • * Dryden
  • In song he never had his peer .
  • * Isaac Taylor
  • Shall they draw off to their privileged quarters, and consort only with their peers ?
  • # Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else).
  • A noble with a hereditary title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.
  • a peer of the realm
  • * Milton
  • a noble peer of mickle trust and power
  • A comrade; a companion; an associate.
  • * Spenser
  • He all his peers in beauty did surpass.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to make equal in rank.
  • (Heylin)
  • (Internet) To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another network provider to carry one's traffic.
  • Derived terms
    * peer-to-peer

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who pees, someone who urinates.
  • * '>citation
  • * '>citation
  • * '>citation
  • Anagrams

    * ----