ESPY (espied)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: espied   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does espy mean? 

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

1. catch sight of

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• ESPY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they espy    ... he / she / it espies   
Past simple: espied   
Past participle: espied   
-ing form: espying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Catch sight of

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

descry; espy; spot; spy

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

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

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

espial (the act of detecting something; catching sight of something)

 Context examples 

But on the near bank, shortly before dark, a moose coming down to drink, had been espied by Kloo-kooch, who was Grey Beaver's squaw.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

So they looked up, and espied the wolf sitting amongst the branches; and they called him a cowardly rascal, and would not suffer him to come down till he was heartily ashamed of himself, and had promised to be good friends again with old Sultan.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

After some time spent in peeping, grinning, and chattering, he at last espied me; and reaching one of his paws in at the door, as a cat does when she plays with a mouse, although I often shifted place to avoid him, he at length seized the lappet of my coat (which being made of that country silk, was very thick and strong), and dragged me out.

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

He stood so still that a squirrel, busy with its harvesting, ran down a pine close beside him, saw him suddenly and skipped back, scolding so shrilly that Beth looked up, espied the wistful face behind the birches, and beckoned with a reassuring smile.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Finding everything still, he marched into the kitchen, and groped about till he found a match in order to light a candle; and then, espying the glittering fiery eyes of the cat, he mistook them for live coals, and held the match to them to light it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

And therefore, when he was again about to move, I screamed as loud as fear could make me: whereupon the huge creature trod short, and, looking round about under him for some time, at last espied me as I lay on the ground.

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

The wolf and the wild boar were first on the ground; and when they espied their enemies coming, and saw the cat’s long tail standing straight in the air, they thought she was carrying a sword for Sultan to fight with; and every time she limped, they thought she was picking up a stone to throw at them; so they said they should not like this way of fighting, and the boar lay down behind a bush, and the wolf jumped up into a tree.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)