spy
noun
a person employed by a government to obtain secret information or intelligence about another, usually hostile, country, especially with reference to military or naval affairs.
was spying
-
past progressiveof spy.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
She asked Pauken if he was spying on China or working for the Central Intelligence Agency, to which he said no.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
At Khalife's trial last year the jury heard how he used cash to buy a mobile phone to call his Iranian contact for whom he was spying.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2025
“If it is confirmed that there was spying for Chinese intelligence from inside the European Parliament, then that is an attack from inside on European democracy,” Faeser said in a statement.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2024
It had been held for eight months — despite being cleared of suspicions that it was spying for China.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
To Monty, this sounded an awful lot like Olympus was spying on them, but she decided not to say anything about that.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
