Meaning

(transitive) To announce a discovery: to disclose; to reveal..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To announce a discovery: to disclose; to reveal.
2. (transitive) To see, especially from afar; to discover (a distant or obscure object) by the eye; to espy; to discern or detect.

Example Sentences

The kalender, […] hath late deſcry'd / That evill affected planet Mars, ally'd / To temporizing Mercury, conjoyn'd / I'th'houſe of Death; […]

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.

VVe vvere deſcried, theyle mock vs novv dounright.

Wee haue descryed vpon our neighbouring / shore, a portlie saile of ships make hitherward.

—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.

Edmund, I thinke, is gone, / In pitty of his miſery, to diſpatch / His nighted life: Moreouer to deſcry / The ſtrength o’ th’ Enemy.

And now thir way to Earth they had descri’d, / To Paradise first tending, […]

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;

Word Forms

• descries
• descrying
• descried

Synonyms for descry

Related Words

When Should You Use Descry?

Use descry when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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