Search the Dictionary

To discover. [Obs.] That none might her discoure. Spenser.

To discover; to reveal; to discoure. [Obs.] I will, if please you it discure, assay To ease you of that ill, so wisely as I may. Spenser.

To discover; to descry. [Obs.] And from his seat took pleasure to display The city so adorned with towers. Chapman.

The act of divining; a foreseeing or foretelling of future events; the pretended art discovering secret or future by preternatural means. There shall not be found among you any one that . . . useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter. Deut. xviii. 10.

g rod, a rod, commonly of witch hazel, with forked branches, used by those who pretend to discover water or metals under ground.

ke, a cake made in silence by girls on St. Mark's eve, with certain mystic ceremonies, to discover their future husbands. Halliwell. -- Dumb cane (Bot.), a west Indian plant of the Arum family (Dieffenbachia seguina), which, when chewed, causes the tongue to swell, and destroys temporarily the power of speech. -- Dum…

chlorine and ethylene or olefiant gas; -- called also Dutch oil. It is so called because discovered (in 1795) by an association of four Hollandish chemists. See Ethylene, and Olefiant. -- Dutch oven, a tin screen for baking before an open fire or kitchen range; also, in the United States, a shallow iron kettle for ba…

ich is obscure or not easily understood; an explanation. The eclaircissement ended in the discovery of the informer. Clarendon.

th the periodic law, and by prediction, to a hypothetical element then unknown, but since discovered and named scandium; -- so called because it was a missing analogue of the boron group. See Scandium.

The name given to a hypothetical element, -- later discovered and called gallium. See Gallium, and cf. Ekabor.

The name of a hypothetical element predicted and afterwards discovered and named germanium; -- so called because it was a missing analogue of the silicon group. See Germanium, and cf. Ekkabor.

cure, or inexplicable saying; a riddle; a statement, the hidden meaning of which is to be discovered or guessed. A custom was among the ancients of proposing an enigma at festivals. Pope.

e for events of great subsequent influence; a memorable period; as, the epoch of maritime discovery, or of the Reformation. "So vast an epoch of time." F. Harrison. The influence of Chaucer continued to live even during the dreary interval which separates from one another two important epochs of our literary history. A…

o called by Berzelius on account of the inability of chemical science, at the time of its discovery, to separate some of its constituents.

The act of espying; notice; discovery. Screened from espial by the jutting cape. Byron.

or employment of spies; the practice of watching the words and conduct of others, to make discoveries, as spies or secret emissaries; secret watching.

To catch sight of; to perceive with the eyes; to discover, as a distant object partly concealed, or not obvious to notice; to see at a glance; to discern unexpectedly; to spy; as, to espy land; to espy a man in a crowd. As one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, . . . he espied his money. Gen.…

copper and silver; -- so called by Berzelius on account of its being found soon after the discovery of the metal selenium.

id to have cried out "Eureka! eureka!" (I have found it! I have found it!), upon suddenly discovering a method of finding out how much the gold of King Hiero's crown had been alloyed. Hence, an expression of triumph concerning a discovery.

A metallic element of the rare-earth group, discovered spectroscopically by Demarcay in 1896. Symbol, Eu; at. wt., 152.0.