Dictionary

descry en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /dɪˈskɹaɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English descrien, descriven in the 14th century already had the dual sense of "to proclaim, announce, make known" and "to see, discern, discover". On the one hand, the Middle English word is a loan Old French descrier (“to proclaim, announce, cry”), from des- + crier (“shout, cry”); in this case, the word is a doublet of decry, which was loaned from the same French source in the 17th century. Alternatively, as suggested by the spelling descriven, the Middle English word may be a contraction of Old French descrire, descrivre (“to describe”), from Latin describere, and thus a doublet of describe (so Palmer 1890, attributing the view to Walter William Skeat), but modern dictionaries more often seem to prefer the view that there was a secondary, folk-etymological influence on descrien by descriven within Middle English (so The Century Dictionary 1911). The semantic shift from "announce" to "discern, detect" is via "to cry out on discovering something that has been looked for". Palmer (1890) compares the etymology of Latin explorare "to search a wood &c. with cries".

Meanings

1. (literary, transitive) To announce a discovery: to disclose; to reveal.
   • The kalender, […] hath late deſcry'd / That evill affected planet Mars, ally'd / To temporizing Mercury, conjoyn'd / I'th'houſe of Death; […] a. 1645 (date written), Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Eglogue X”, in The Shepheards Oracles: Delivered in Certain Eglogues, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for John Marriot and Richard Marriot, […], published 1645 (indicated as 1646), →OCLC, page 119:
   • [I]f the Harte ſhould rowze for feare a farre of [off], his hound (hunting vpon the winde) might carie him amiſſe, ſo that he ſhould not finde the layre. Whereby (⁊ by yͤ foyles about it) he might haue certain iudgement: and if he rowze or vnharbor the Deare ⁊ find the layre, let him not blow ouer haſtely for yͤ hoűds [hounds], but onely cry, Looke ware, looke ware, ware, ware and let him draw on with his hound vntil yͤ Deare be diſcried, ⁊ rightly marked before he hallow. 1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “How a Huntsman should Rowze an Hart, and Cast off His Hounds to Him”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 107:
   • His Body was found almost naked in the field, for his Purple Robe he had thrown aside, lest it should descry him, unwilling to be found. 1670, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC, page 87:
2. (literary, transitive) To see, especially from afar; to discover (a distant or obscure object) by the eye; to espy; to discern or detect.
   • Wee haue descryed vpon our neighbouring / shore, a portlie saile of ships make hitherward. c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
   • Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days’ cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair. 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 47:
   • Dimly through the mists they could descry the long arm of the mountains rising on their left. 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, page 15:
   • And now thir way to Earth they had descri’d, / To Paradise first tending, […] 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 325-326:
   • VVe vvere deſcried, theyle mock vs novv dounright. c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], signature H3, recto:
   • On the far hillside we are approaching can be descried a bridge on the first section (Ruabon–Llangollen) of the important G.W.R. branch to Dolgelley, which will shortly join our main line by means of a trailing junction. 1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 18:
   • When I had pass’d the Vale where my Bower stood as above, I came within View of the Sea, to the West, and it being a very clear Day, I fairly descry’d Land—whether an Island or a Continent, I could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the West to the W.S.W. at a very great Distance; 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 127:
   • Edmund, I thinke, is gone, / In pitty of his miſery, to diſpatch / His nighted life: Moreouer to deſcry / The ſtrength o’ th’ Enemy. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 302, column 1:
   • —Under this head I reckon a monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and Long-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the Atlantic, in the New York packet-tracks. 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 35, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 151:

Forms

Deriveds

descriable · undescrying · undescried

Translations (21)

pl zauważyć (to discover; to detect) · de entdecken (to discover; to detect) · de erkennen (to discover; to detect) · ro băga de seamă (to discover; to detect) · de herauslesen (to discover; to detect) · ru замеча́ть (to discover; to detect) · fr percevoir (to discover; to detect) · ro vedea (to discover; to detect) · pl zauważać (to discover; to detect) · ro observa (to discover; to detect) · es divisar (to discover; to detect) · de wahrnehmen (to discover; to detect) · it scorgere (to discover; to detect) · cs rozeznat (to discover; to detect) · la prospicio (to discover; to detect) · bg забелязвам (to discover; to detect) · ro zări (to discover; to detect) · bg съзирам (to discover; to detect) · pl wywnioskować (to discover; to detect) · pl wywnioskowywać (to discover; to detect) · as ধৰা পেলোৱা (to discover; to detect)