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
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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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Othello
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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:
In ancient Egypt, seekers after spiritual guidance could spend a night in incubation, which was a special institutionalised sleep undertaken in the temples of the gods precisely in order to descry meaning in the dark.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 15, 2018
What yonder twinkling azure orb do I descry?
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2015
Still, there are trends and changes to descry: To the usual surprising degree, great minds are thinking alike, small ones running in the same gutter.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2011
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
Dimly through the mists they could descry the long arm of the mountains rising on their left.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
As for Thucydides, his knowledge of men, the fruit of patient experience deepened by disappointment, is felt behind every line of his book, as one descries it in the features of his undegenerate descendant Venizelos.
From The Legacy of Greece Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield by R.W. Livingstone
Olimpia awakes, and, finding herself alone, hurries to the beach, and then ascends a rock, whence she descries, by light of the moon, the departing sail of her lover.
From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume I by John Dunlop
Scanning the heights with a field-glass, one descries a man working on some jutting point or tiny patch of tillage so steep that a stone would hardly lie.
From Wild Spain (Espa?a agreste) Records of Sport with Rifle, Rod, and Gun, Natural History Exploration by Walter J. Buck
An instant later, the dying face seemed lightened, like one who descries the lights of home.
From St. Cuthbert's by Robert E. Knowles
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 Raphael Semmes
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
Another witness descried their relationship as being "more like mother and daughter".
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2021
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
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
Never was there a more trusty pair, in descrying afar off a father, or brother, or any other kind of unwelcome intruder upon moonlight meetings.
From Gómez Arias Or, The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. by Joaquín Telesforo de Trueba y Cosío
The former commissary of police, it is true, had a habit of descrying rebels everywhere.
From A Reckless Character And Other Stories by Isabel Florence Hapgood
She turned, however, before she had proceeded many steps, and descrying Magnhild's look of surprise, sprang back and clasped her in a fervent embrace.
From Magnhild Dust by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
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.
