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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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 Mary Cholmondeley
Here, his quick glance descries a man who is moving drowsily, and he says a sharp word that makes him, in a moment, nimble.
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 429 Volume 17, New Series, March 20, 1852 by William Chambers
I read it in thy looks—thy languish'd grace To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.'
From Storyology Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore by Benjamin Taylor
De Monts, efforts of, to obtain colonists, 25; cedes his privileges in Acadia, 34, 35; his commission and privileges, 153-155; descries the Isles of Shoals, 155; in Plymouth Bay, 273, 274, 275.
From Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast by Samuel Adams Drake
Presently a long street opens before him, at whose farther end he descries a forest of masts, with their network of spars and rigging, like the web of a gigantic spider.
From The Land of Fire A Tale of Adventure by Mayne Reid
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
There it seemed to Frodo that he descried far off, floating as it were on a shadowy sea, the high dim tops and broken pinnacles of old towers forlorn and dark.
From "The Two Towers" 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
"Where's mine pipe?" he asked, looking around in the vain hope of descrying it somewhere upon the ground.
From Oonomoo the Huron by Edward Sylvester Ellis
He caught only a flitting glimpse of a person, who, descrying him at the same instant, whisked behind a bowlder for protection.
From The Young Ranchers or, Fighting the Sioux by Edward Sylvester Ellis
Besides these ominous signs Adam, descrying a bright light travelling rapidly toward them, informs Eve some message is on its way.
From The Book of the Epic by H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
