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Spy   /spaɪ/   Listen
noun
Spy  n.  (pl. spies)  
1.
One who keeps a constant watch of the conduct of others. "These wretched spies of wit."
2.
(Mil.) A person sent secretly into an enemy's camp, territory, or fortifications, to inspect his works, ascertain his strength, movements, or designs, and to communicate such intelligence to the proper officer.
Spy money, money paid to a spy; the reward for private or secret intelligence regarding the enemy.
Spy Wednesday (Eccl.), the Wednesday immediately preceding the festival of Easter; so called in allusion to the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot.
Synonyms: See Emissary, and Scout.


verb
Spy  v. t.  (past & past part. spied; pres. part. spying)  
1.
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."
2.
To discover by close search or examination. "Look about with your eyes; spy what things are to be reformed in the church of England."
3.
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."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Spy" Quotes from Famous Books



... respect." "Love," says Sir Thomas Overbury, wittily, "is a superstition that doth fear the idol which itself hath made." "To reveal its complacence by gifts," says Mrs. Sigourney, "is one of the native dialects of love." "Love is never so blind as when it is to spy faults," says South. "Love reckons days for years," says Dryden, "and every little absence is an age." "Where love has once obtained an influence," observes Plautus dryly, "any flavoring, I believe, will please." "That is the true reason ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern
... Pierre le Noir, his neighbor Oscar Muhlbach, a German spy Bertha le Noir, Pierre's sister General of the German ...
— Writing the Photoplay • J. Berg Esenwein and Arthur Leeds
... a woman spy whom I had known in Abalaine was brought to the village and shot. The frequency with which the duck walk at Abalaine had been shelled, especially when ration parties or troops were going over it, had attracted a good ...
— A Yankee in the Trenches • R. Derby Holmes
... saying that, Jerry," declared Frank, "because I believe you are as innocent as I can be myself. I only happened to remember that you talked of wanting to sneak up there and spy around a bit, though you owned it would be mean. And I also chance to know that you've been around every hour since you came ...
— The Outdoor Chums at Cabin Point - or The Golden Cup Mystery • Quincy Allen
... girls grew red and embarrassed and stared down in the surf.' The book is full of such scenes. Now it is a crowd going by train to the Parnell celebration, now it is a woman cursing her son who made himself a spy for the police, now it is an old woman keening at a funeral. Kindred to his delight in the harsh grey stones, in the hardship of the life there, in the wind and in the mist, there is always delight in every moment of excitement, ...
— Synge And The Ireland Of His Time • William Butler Yeats


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