surveil

American  

[ser-veyl] / sərˈveɪl /

verb (used with object)

surveilled, surveilling

1. to place under surveillance.

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surveil British  

/ sɜːˈveɪl /

verb

1. to observe closely the activities of (a person or group)

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Etymology

Origin of surveil

First recorded in 1965–70; back formation from surveillance

Explanation

To surveil is to spy on someone, the way a television private eye sits in her car and uses binoculars to surveil the show's villain. The noun surveillance came first, from the French surveiller, "to oversee or watch." If you were to surveil someone, you'd keep a close eye on them, monitoring everything they do. These days, that means keeping track of their online activity as well as their phone calls and physical movement. It's usually authority and governmental figures doing the surveillance — although if a company wants to sell you something, they just might surveil your internet history.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

surveil surveilled surveilling

It added that the use of robots made outside the US could allow "malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots."

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

District Court of Maine, alleging that federal agents are using facial recognition and license plate readers to surveil and threaten legal observers in the state.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

Frank Bisignano directed staff to use software to snoop in email of rivals and surveil work of employees; Bisignano, who also heads Social Security, denied he ever spied on co-workers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Anthropic doesn’t want its products used to surveil Americans or create autonomous machines of war.

From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2026

They are just data brokers doing business, they say, and it’s not their fault if what they gather and sell is used to subdue and surveil people.

From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2026

But police departments were wary of being constantly surveilled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

In the indictment, the government alleges that protesters blocked ICE facilities and surveilled and harassed government employees while communicating in a Signal group chat, which they say was used to identify government vehicles.

From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026

Like Adam, many people were led to believe they were being surveilled and were in danger.

From BBC ● May 2, 2026

"We're already being surveilled by billions of smartphones, city camera networks and smart devices that we willingly placed in our homes."

From Barron's ● Jan. 11, 2026

I'm a senior at Cesar Chavez high in San Francisco's sunny Mission district, and that makes me one of the most surveilled people in the world.

From Little Brother by Doctorow, Cory

Whether it’s vanquishing assailants or surreptitiously surveilling enemies, daemons provide significant advantages for their masters.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026

He spoke as cheers echoed off the skyscrapers dotted around the World Trade Center, where Knicks gathered alongside National Guard troops surveilling the area.

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

"At night, I'd often hear a buzzing sound. I was in secondary school and didn't realise it then, but these were planes surveilling our neighbourhood," Ali tells the BBC.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

In the most technical sense, none of this violates the red lines that Amodei outlined around surveilling Americans or allowing its tech to power fully autonomous killing machines.

From Slate ● Mar. 3, 2026

“They’re watching us in here, too? Are we allowed to use the bathroom privately, or are they surveilling our bodily functions as well?”

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed