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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Discover \Dis*cov"er\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Discovered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Discovering}.] [OE. discoveren, discuren, descuren, OF. descovrir, descouvrir, F. d['e]couvrir; des- (L. dis-) + couvrir to cover. See {Cover}.]
1. To uncover. [Obs.]
Whether any man hath pulled down or discovered any church. --Abp. Grindal.
2. To disclose; to lay open to view; to make visible; to reveal; to make known; to show (what has been secret, unseen, or unknown). [Archaic]
Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover The several caskets to this noble prince. --Shak.
Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. --Bacon.
We will discover ourselves unto them. --1 Sam. xiv. 8.
Discover not a secret to another. --Prov. xxv. 9.
3. To obtain for the first time sight or knowledge of, as of a thing existing already, but not perceived or known; to find; to ascertain; to espy; to detect. [WordNet sense 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Some to discover islands far away. --Shak.
4. To manifest without design; to show.
The youth discovered a taste for sculpture. --C. J. Smith.
5. To explore; to examine. [Obs.]
Syn: To disclose; bring out; exhibit; show; manifest; reveal; communicate; impart; tell; espy; find; out; detect. -- To {Discover}, {Invent}. We discover what existed before, but remained unknown; we invent by forming combinations which are either entirely new, or which attain their end by means unknown before. Columbus discovered America; Newton discovered the law of gravitation; Whitney invented the cotton gin; Galileo invented the telescope.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
discovered
adjective
1: no longer concealed; uncovered as by opening a curtain; 'discovered' is archaic and primarily a theater term; "the scene disclosed was of a moonlit forest" [syn: {disclosed}, {revealed}]
2: discovered or determined by scientific observation; "variation in the ascertained flux depends on a number of factors"; "the discovered behavior norms"; "discovered differences in achievement"; "no explanation for the observed phenomena" [syn: {ascertained}, {observed}]
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |