Descry
Verb
Pronunciation and accent: dIskraI
Etymology: it is conjectured that it may be from Old French descrier (= to cry, publish, decry), which is analysable into des- Latin dis- + crier (= to cry)
Preterite tense: descried
Preterite participle: descried
present participle: descrying.
Third-person singular present: descries
First definition: to perceive visually (something or someone distant or obscure), after having been on watch (or after having been looking about, or spying, etc.)
It may be approximately translated by divisar, in Spanish; apercevoir, in French; avvistare, in Italian.
Synonyms: to spy; to recognize or discern visually; to see; behold
At daybreak we both at the same instant descried a sail to the eastward, and evidently coming towards us!
Edgar Allan Poe (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym)
He beheld with admiration the regular disposition of the intrenchments, the long intersected tented streets, and the warlike appearance of the soldiers, whom he could descry, even at that distance, by the beams of a bright evening sun which shone upon their arms.
Jane Porter (Thaddeus of Warsaw)
[…] we had the pleasure of descrying high land to the westward, which proved to be Japan.
Robert Kerr (…Voyages and Travels)
The fishermen say, that they can even now descry, with the help of their water-glasses, pieces of cannon lying at the bottom where the ship went to pieces.
Charles Johns (A week at the Lizard)
The water is very deep and of a fine olive-green, and, being remarkably clear, the light stones lying at the bottom are distinctly visible, among which, at my last visit, we could descry great fishes, probably bass, pursuing shoals of launces.
Charles Johns (A week at the Lizard)
He looked in the direction whence the sound of footsteps came, but the leafy covert was so thick in that direction that he could descry nothing.
Charles F. Hoffman (Greyslaer)
[…] While the others wrought I stood as sentinel to descry any man that came near.
George L. Craik (A pictorial history of England)
On the 31st of July land was seen ahead. Three peaks were descried just emerging from the horizon, and on a nearer approach were found to be united at their base.
William Cooley (The History of Maritime and Inland Discovery) vol. 2
Slipping on tiptoe to the outer door, she quietly opened it, and, letting herself out, she moved quickly round the house, towards a little window belonging to the room at that end of it, where she knew the wounded man was lying. It consisted of two small panes of glass, placed in a frame that moved inwards upon hinges. She put her ear to it, but no sound reached her save that of deep snoring. Morag pushed gently against the frame, and it yielded to the pressure. Having inserted her head, and looked eagerly about, in the hope of descrying the sleeper, by the partial stream of moonlight that was admitted into the place, she could discover nothing but the heap of straw in the bedstead in a dark corner.
Thomas Lauder (Tales of the highlands)
Undoubtedly these banks were the very place where the advanced guards from Persepolis took post, and from which Alexander found it so difficult to dislodge them. One cannot from hence descry the ruins of the city, because the banks are too high to be overlooked.
James Elmes (… dictionary of the fine arts)
The shop being very full, and she in no immediate hurry, she seated herself in a convenient position whence she could take a survey of the different young men behind the counter; but amongst them she could not descry Mr James Hurley.
Catherine Crowe (Susan Hopley)
Second definition: to find (a fact, etc.) in consequence of having been on watch (or after having been looking about, or spying, etc.)
Synonyms: to detect, observe
In the early gray of the morning, they discerned a ray of light enter the hole, and descried that it came from a tunnel leading to the outside.
The Overland Monthly
[…] I tore up the floor of the little mill, and in doing so, descried that a plank had been recently lifted, as it lay quite loose upon tho beam.
Catherine Embury (Glimpses of Home Life)
