/descry/
-) Verb.
-) Pronunciation and accent: dɪskraɪ.
-) Etymology: it is conjectured that it may be from Old French descrier (to cry, publish, decry), which is analysed into des- Latin dis- + crier (to cry).
-) Preterite tense: descried.
-) Preterite participle: descried; present participle: descrying.
-) Third-person singular present: descries.
-) documented since 1300.
-) 1. (Of someone who is on watch, looking about, spying, etc.) to perceive visually (something or someone distant or obscure).
-) Translation: divisar, in Spanish; apercevoir, in French; avvistare, in Italian.
-) Synonyms for “descry”: to spy; to recognize or discern visually; to see; behold.
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… 1803
… we had the pleasure of descrying high land to the westward, which proved to be Japan.
R. Kerr…Voyages and Travels… 1816
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.
Cooley… Maritime and Inland Discovery… 1833
At daybreak, we both at the same instant descried a sail to the eastward, and evidently coming towards us!
Poe… The Narrative… 1838
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 Hoffman… Greyslaer 1840
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 […]. 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…
Lauder… Tales of the Highlands 1841
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.
C. Crowe… Susan Hopley… 1842
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… 1848
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… 1848
-) 2. To find (a fact, etc.) in consequence of having been on watch (or after having been looking about, or spying, etc.)
-) Synonyms: detect, observe.
… 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.
C. Embury… Glimpses… 1848
-) Word derived from the verb “descry”: descrying.
