different between espy vs find

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English finden, from Old English findan, from Proto-West Germanic *finþan, from Proto-Germanic *finþan? (compare West Frisian fine, Low German finden, Dutch vinden, German finden, Danish finde, Norwegian Bokmål finne, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish finna), a secondary verb from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to go, pass; path bridge”), *póntoh?s (compare English path, Old Irish étain (“I find”), áitt (“place”), Latin p?ns (“bridge”), Ancient Greek ?????? (póntos, “sea”), Old Armenian ???? (hun, “ford”), Avestan ????????????????????? (pa?t??), Sanskrit ?? (pathá, “path”)).

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?nd, IPA^(key): /fa?nd/
• Rhymes: -a?nd
• Homophone: fined

Verb

find (third-person singular simple present finds, present participle finding, simple past found or (dialectal) fand, past participle found or (archaic) founden)

1. (transitive) To encounter or discover by accident; to happen upon.
   • a. 1667, Abraham Cowley, The Request

     Among the Woods and Forests thou art found.

2. (transitive) To encounter or discover something being searched for; to locate.
3. (ditransitive) To discover by study or experiment direct to an object or end.

4. (transitive) To gain, as the object of desire or effort.

5. (transitive) To attain to; to arrive at; to acquire.

6. (transitive) To point out.

7. (ditransitive) To decide that, to discover that, to form the opinion that.
   • 1647, Abraham Cowley, The Request

     The torrid zone is now found habitable.
8. (transitive) To arrive at, as a conclusion; to determine as true; to establish.
9. (transitive, archaic) To supply; to furnish.

10. (transitive, archaic) To provide for
    • 1871, Charles Kingsley, At Last: a Christmas in the West Indies

      Nothing a day and find yourself.

    • 1892, W. E. Swanton, Notes on New Zealand

      the pay is good, the musterer receiving ten shillings a day, and all found, all the time he is engaged on the "run," even should he be compelled to remain idle on account of rain or mist.

11. (intransitive, law) To determine or judge.

12. (intransitive, hunting) To discover game.
    • 1945, Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love, Penguin 2010, page 57:

      They found at once, and there was a short sharp run, during which Linda and Tony, both in a somewhat showing-off mood, rode side by side over the stone walls.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:deem

Antonyms

• lose

Derived terms

• befind
• findable
• finder
• hard-to-find
• viewfinder
• unfindable

Related terms

See also finding and found

Translations

Noun

find (plural finds)

1. Anything that is found (usually valuable), as objects on an archeological site or a person with talent.
2. The act of finding.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

• (anything found): discovery, catch

Translations

Further reading

• find in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• find in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• NFID

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fend/, [fen?]
• Rhymes: -end

Verb

find

1. imperative of finde

Middle English

Noun

find (plural findes)

1. Alternative form of feend