espy.
To find out or observe (someone or something, especially if not easy to see) by spying or looking; to catch sight of; to see; to spot.
Meaning & usage
To find out or observe (someone or something, especially if not easy to see) by spying or looking; to catch sight of; to see; to spot.
to espy land to espy a man in a crowd
To see (someone or something) without foreplanning or unexpectedly.
To observe (someone or something) as a spy; also, to examine or observe (someone or something) carefully; or to look out or watch for.
To become aware of (a fact, information, etc.).
To observe as a spy, to spy; also, to examine or observe carefully; or to look out or watch.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English aspien, espien (“to make covert observations of (a person or place) with hostile intent, to spy on; to seek to discover by spying; to act as a spy; to catch sight of, see; to look over, observe; to wait in ambush, to ambush; to plot against; to look for, seek to find; to inquire or look into, investigate; to discover, find”) [and other forms], from Old French espier (“to watch”) (modern French épier (“to keep an eye on, watch; to spy on; (dated) to watch for”)), from Vulgar Latin *spiāre, from Frankish *spehōn (“to look, peer; to spy”), from Proto-Germanic *spehōną (“to look, peer; to spy”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look, observe, see”). Doublet of spy. Cognates * Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, “to examine; to look at; to consider, think”) * Italian spiare * Latin speciō (“to look at, observe, watch”) * Old High German spehōn (modern German spähen) * Occitan espiar * Spanish espiar
An act of finding out or observing by spying or looking; an espial or espying.
A scout or spy.
The act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means; espionage.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English aspie, espie (“covert investigation or observation, scouting, spying; information obtained through spying; secret and treacherous plan, plot; treachery; a scout or spy”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman espie, Old French espie, from espier (verb): see further at etymology 1. Cognates * Italian spia * Spanish espia
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.