SPYING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Spying

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/spˈaɪɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Spy v. t. (past & past part. spied; pres. part. spying)

To gain sight of; to discover at a distance, or in a state of concealment; to espy; to see. "One, in reading, skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration."

To discover by close search or examination. "Look about with your eyes; spy what things are to be reformed in the church of England."

To explore; to view, inspect, and examine secretly, as a country; usually with out. "Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof."

Spy v. i. To search narrowly; to scrutinize. "It is my nature's plague To spy into abuses."

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Etymology of 'Spying'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spying" Quotes from Famous Books

... ideas returned. Tanaka! He had seen the little beast in Yae's motor car at Chuzenji. He must have come spying after his master as he had done fifty times before. He and that half-caste devil had raced him back to Tokyo, had got in ahead of him, and had told a pack of lies to Asako. She must have believed them, since she had gone away. But where had she gone to? The boy ...

— Kimono • John Paris

... not you tell me that an English judge did once declare that a man's home was his castle, which he was pledged to defend from invasion and assault. What else is my garden? That brute of a Bouquet came spying about my castle, and I did but defend myself. ...

— The Boy Life of Napoleon - Afterwards Emperor Of The French • Eugenie Foa

... take Muro long to see the situation. They were surrounded by a cordon of savages, and while spying, saw a new lot of them coming up. The plan was plain enough, and it meant a fight ...

— The Wonder Island Boys: Adventures on Strange Islands • Roger Thompson Finlay

... know you are. Taken you all by storm. Found this gentleman wandering like a troubled spirit by the way-side, and pressed him into service. I shall make a gallant knight of him yet, My dear soul!" she cried, spying me out and rushing towards me, "I am so glad to see you here, escaped from the ruthless hands of the doctor. I never saw such a despot in my life, except one;" here she looked laughingly and defiantly at Ernest,—"he would out-Nero Nero himself, if ...

— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... grasshopper, came, as she was wont, to the fountain, to fill her water-cask. Now she knew the meaning of the fountain which was talked of everywhere; and when she saw Zoza weeping so incessantly, and making two little streams from her eyes, she was always watching and spying until the pitcher should be full enough for her to add the last drops to it; and thus to leave Zoza cheated of her hopes. Now, therefore, seeing Zoza asleep, she seized her opportunity; and dexterously removing the pitcher from under Zoza, and placing ...

— Stories from Pentamerone • Giambattista Basile

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