DESCRY (descried)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: descried   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does descry mean? 

• DESCRY (verb)
  The verb DESCRY has 1 sense:

1. catch sight of

  Familiarity information: DESCRY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESCRY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they descry    ... he / she / it descries   
Past simple: descried   
Past participle: descried   
-ing form: descrying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Catch sight of

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

descry; espy; spot; spy

Hypernyms (to "descry" is one way to...):

sight; spy (catch sight of; to perceive with the eyes)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

Shortly afterwards Miss Bates, passing near the window, descried Mr. Knightley on horse-back not far off.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Porpoises and dolphins, I believe, will be frequently observed athwart our Bows; and, either on the starboard or the larboard quarter, objects of interest will be continually descried.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Having thus prepared all things as well as I was able, I set sail on the twenty-fourth day of September 1701, at six in the morning; and when I had gone about four-leagues to the northward, the wind being at south-east, at six in the evening I descried a small island, about half a league to the north-west.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It was fixed accordingly, that Mrs Clay should be of the party in the carriage; and they had just reached this point, when Anne, as she sat near the window, descried, most decidedly and distinctly, Captain Wentworth walking down the street.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Fanny, having been sent into the village on some errand by her aunt Norris, was overtaken by a heavy shower close to the Parsonage; and being descried from one of the windows endeavouring to find shelter under the branches and lingering leaves of an oak just beyond their premises, was forced, though not without some modest reluctance on her part, to come in.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

This critique, the justness of which was unfortunately lost on poor Catherine, brought them to the door of Mrs. Thorpe's lodgings, and the feelings of the discerning and unprejudiced reader of Camilla gave way to the feelings of the dutiful and affectionate son, as they met Mrs. Thorpe, who had descried them from above, in the passage.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

To my surprise, I heard no more about it for some two or three weeks, though I was sufficiently interested in the result of his endeavours; descrying a strange gleam of good sense—I say nothing of good feeling, for that he always exhibited—in the conclusion to which he had come.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I discovered nothing all that day; but upon the next, about three in the afternoon, when I had by my computation made twenty-four leagues from Blefuscu, I descried a sail steering to the south-east; my course was due east. I hailed her, but could get no answer; yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind slackened.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But my aunt, suddenly descrying among them the young malefactor who was the donkey's guardian, and who was one of the most inveterate offenders against her, though hardly in his teens, rushed out to the scene of action, pounced upon him, captured him, dragged him, with his jacket over his head, and his heels grinding the ground, into the garden, and, calling upon Janet to fetch the constables and justices, that he might be taken, tried, and executed on the spot, held him at bay there.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Some efforts were even then being made, to cut this portion of the wreck away; for, as the ship, which was broadside on, turned towards us in her rolling, I plainly descried her people at work with axes, especially one active figure with long curling hair, conspicuous among the rest.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)