spy
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.049
Pronunciation
- IPA: /spaɪ/
spy (plural spies)
- A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).
- French: espion, espionne
- German: Spion, Spionin
- Italian: spia
- Portuguese: espião
- Russian: шпио́н
- Spanish: espía, chivato
spy (spies, present participle spying; past and past participle spied)
- (intransitive) To act as a spy#Noun|spy.
- During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon.
- (transitive) To spot; to catch sight of.
- I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here.
- RQ
- One in reading, skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration.
- Look about with your eyes; spy what things are to be reformed in the church of England.
- (intransitive) To search narrowly; to scrutinize.
- c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:
- It is my nature's plague / To spy into abuses.
- (transitive) To explore; to see; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country.
- French: espionner
- German: ausspionieren
- Italian: spiare
- Portuguese: espiar, espionar
- Russian: шпио́нить
- Spanish: espiar
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.049