different between descry vs espy

English

Etymology

From Middle English descrien, descryen, from Old French descrier (“to proclaim, announce, cry”), from des- + crier (“shout, cry”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??sk?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Verb

descry (third-person singular simple present descries, present participle descrying, simple past and past participle descried) (literary)

1. (transitive) To see.
2. (transitive) To discover (a distant or obscure object) by the eye; to espy; to discern or detect.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act IV, Scene 5,^[2]

     Edmund, I think, is gone,

     In pity of his misery, to dispatch

     His nighted life; moreover to descry

     The strength o’ th’ enemy.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 10, lines 325-326,^[3]

     And now thir way to Earth they had descri’d,

     To Paradise first tending, […]

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, 3rd edition, p. 127,^[4]

     When I had pass’d the Vale where my Bower stood as above, I came within View of the Sea, to the West, and it being a very clear Day, I fairly descry’d Land—whether an Island or a Continent, I could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the West to the W.S.W. at a very great Distance;

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity, New York: Macmillan, Chapter 4, p. 47,^[5]

     Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days’ cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

3. (transitive) To discover: to disclose; to reveal.
   • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, London: James Allestry, Book 2, p. 87,^[6]

     His Body was found almost naked in the field, for his Purple Robe he had thrown aside, lest it should descry him, unwilling to be found.

Translations

Further reading

• descry in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• descry in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• descry at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “descry”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• cyders

English

Etymology

From Old French espier (French épier). More at spy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??spa?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Verb

espy (third-person singular simple present espies, present participle espying, simple past and past participle espied)

1. (transitive) To catch sight of; to see; to spot (said especially of something not easy to see)
   • 1880, Charu Chandra Mookerjee translating Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Durgesa Nandini

     Bimala looked at the direction in silence. Deep and hard breathings entered her ear, and she espied something near the road.

   • 1893, Horatio Alger, Cast Upon the Breakers Chapter 2

     "Ha!" said John, espying the open casket, "where did you get all that jewelry?"

   • 2011, May 1, Alice Rawsthron, The New York Times, Skull and Crossbones as Branding Tool

     By the turn of the 18th century, when Captain Cranby espied Wynn's skull and crossbones, the piracy trade was flourishing and ambitious pirates were becoming increasingly sophisticated in the way they operated.

2. (transitive) To examine and keep watch upon; to watch; to observe.
   • 1651, Jeremy Taylor, Twenty-sermons for the winter half-year, "The Entail of Curses cut off"

     God is “inquisitive;” he looks for that which he fain would never find; God sets spies upon us; he looks upon us himself through the curtains of a cloud, and he sends angels to espy us in all our ways

3. (intransitive) To look or search narrowly; to look about; to watch; to take notice; to spy.
   • 1611, King James Bible, Jeremiah 48:19

     O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?

Synonyms

See Thesaurus:spot

Translations

Anagrams

• Pyes, Spey, pyes, spye, yeps