Word of the Day

Monday July 20, 2009

descry [dih-SKRY]

transitive verb

To catch sight of, usually objects distant or obscure; to recognize; to discern.
To discover; to detect.

Then, starting at the turn of the 20th century, he cast his appraising eye on women. Long before the word "sexy" was in common use, his shows made viewers raise their opera glasses to descry whether the dancers onstage were nude or just cleverly swathed in flesh-toned fabric.

Rebecca Wigod, "Biographers Reach Back to the Jazz Age", The Vancouver Sun, Jan 10, 2009
Only the streaks left by wheeling stars during the long exposure it took her to make "Tree" (2005) permit us to locate the picture's nominal subject. Where the streaks of starlight appear broken we can begin to descry the black-on-black of the tree's elaborate silhouette against the night sky.

Kenneth Baker, "Levine's acumen shows through in his portraiture", San Francisco Chronicle, Aug 19, 2006
In the faint moonlight he could just descry the dark shapes of the melons on the ground in front of him.

Edward Bellamy (1850 - 1898) An American author and socialist. Hooking Watermelons (1898)

Origin of the Word

Descry, approximately 1300, probably derives from Old French descrier "publish," from Latin describere: to describe.