discover

• discovre (obsolete)

Borrowed from Old French descovrir, from Late Latin discoperīre < discooperiō, discooperīre, from Latin dis- + cooperiō.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkʌvə/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkʊvə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkʌvɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌvə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: dis‧cov‧er

discover (third-person singular simple present discovers, present participle discovering, simple past and past participle discovered)

1. To find or learn something for the first time.

   Turning the corner, I discovered a lovely little shop. I discovered that they sold widgets.

   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To remove the cover from; to uncover (a head, building etc.).
3. (transitive, now rare) To expose, uncover.

   The gust of wind discovered a bone in the sand.

4. (transitive, chess) To create by moving a piece out of another piece's line of attack.

   This move discovers an attack on a vital pawn.

5. (transitive, archaic) To reveal (information); to divulge, make known.

   I discovered my plans to the rest of the team.

   • Shakespeare

     Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover / The several caskets to this noble prince.

   • Francis Bacon

     Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To reconnoitre, explore (an area).
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Bk.V, ch.ix:

     they seyde the same, and were aggreed that Sir Clegis, Sir Claryon, and Sir Clement the noble, that they sholde dyscover the woodys, bothe the dalys and the downys.

7. (obsolete) To manifest without design; to show; to exhibit.
   • C. J. Smith

     The youth discovered a taste for sculpture.

   • 1806, Alexander Hunter, Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ, page 125:

     The English Cooks keep all their Spices in separate boxes, but the French Cooks make a spicey mixture that does not discover a predominancy of any one of the spices over the others.

• (expose something previously covered): expose, reveal, uncover
• (find something for the first time): come across, find

• (expose something previously covered): conceal, cover, cover up, hide

• discovery
• discovered attack
• discovered check

• invent
• detect
• find
• stumble upon

• codrives, discovre, divorces, divorcés