descry
Americanverb
-
to discern or make out; catch sight of
-
to discover by looking carefully; detect
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
descrysimple
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descriessimple
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have descriedperfect
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has descriedperfect
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am descryingprogressive
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are descryingprogressive
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is descryingprogressive
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have been descryingperfect progressive
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has been descryingperfect progressive
Past
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descriedsimple
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had descriedperfect
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was descryingprogressive
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were descryingprogressive
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had been descryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of descry
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English descrien, from Old French de(s)crïer “to proclaim, decry”; see dis- 1, cry
Explanation
If you spot something, you descry it. When you spy it, you descry it. It's a good verb to use when you catch a glimpse of a rare bird in the trees. Or when you finally spot Waldo in a Where's Waldo? book. Descry is very similar to "see" or "discern," but involves more than just keeping your eyes open. Usually you descry something after observing carefully for a while. Wrote Ovid, the Ancient Roman poet and author: “Time on time revolving we descry, so moments flit, so moments fly.” Apparently, even in antiquity people complained about seeing the time go by too quickly.
Vocabulary lists containing descry
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The superior power of machine learning, Cohen explains, is that it can descry patterns in what traditional sensory methods dismissed as noise.
From The Guardian ● May 23, 2018
What yonder twinkling azure orb do I descry?
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2015
You will descry shades of H. Potter and of "Grimm," which this series predates.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 12, 2012
Was the distribution of shot times entirely random, or were there any local or global patterns to descry: longies with longies, middies alternating with shorties, etc.?
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2010
“I cannot descry all of your marks,” I explained.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
He experienced a certain relief in its advent, as one who descries a familiar face in a foreign crowd.
From Notwithstanding by Cholmondeley, Mary
Whenever it descries danger from afar, the submarine can disappear under the water in anywhere from twenty seconds to a minute.
From The Victory At Sea by Hendrick, Burton J.
As in search for Turnus he bent his glance this way and that round the separate ranks, he descries the city free from all this warfare, unpunished and unstirred.
From The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil
The famous peak before spoken of, and which the mariner at sea descries long before the body of the island becomes visible, is a queer freak of nature.
From Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between the States by Semmes, Raphael
While scanning the moonlit expanse he descries a group of figures; apparently quadrupeds, though of what species he cannot tell.
From The Death Shot A Story Retold by Reid, Mayne
Once the employer of 500 people, the mill is a keyhole through which most of Dundee’s history can be descried.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 30, 2022
A truly fascinating man, Angleton was a devoted student of the matchless British literary critic William Empson, who descried, in the densely metaphoric poems of Donne and Shakespeare, patterns of subtle contradiction, self-reference, and ambiguity.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 26, 2019
Presently they descried people, naked, and the Admiral landed in the boat, which was armed, along with Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and Vincent Yanez his brother, captain of the Nina.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2019
Police Chief Murphy Paul descried the footage as “shocking to the conscience,” even as he emphasized that it does not “tell the whole story of the investigation.”
From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2018
To the east the outflung arm of the mountains marched to a sudden end, and far lands could be descried beyond them, wide and vague.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
My colleague Jessica Winter does have a helpful hint, though, for descrying Trump’s fanciest, sneakiest adviser:
From Slate ● May 2, 2017
Say you were descrying the future TV of 2000, 20 years ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
On descrying it, Richard pointed out a course to the left, but Nicholas held on, unheeding the caution.
From The Lancashire Witches A Romance of Pendle Forest by Ainsworth, William Harrison
Silence stands breathless with expectation—all eyes are riveted—the horses come within descrying distance—"beautiful!" three close together, two behind.
From Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities by Surtees, Robert Smith
She wished now she had aroused her father immediately on first descrying the man.
From Frances of the Ranges The Old Ranchman's Treasure by Marlowe, Amy Bell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
