discover








verb (used with object)

  1. to see, get knowledge of, learn of, find, or find out; gain sight or knowledge of (something previously unseen or unknown): to discover America; to discover electricity.
  2. to notice or realize: I discovered I didn’t have my credit card with me when I went to pay my bill.
  3. Archaic. to make known; reveal; disclose.

verb (tr; may take a clause as object)

  1. to be the first to find or find out aboutFleming discovered penicillin
  2. to learn about or encounter for the first time; realizeshe discovered the pleasures of wine
  3. to find after study or searchI discovered a leak in the tank
  4. to reveal or make known
v.

c.1300, “divulge, reveal, disclose,” from Old French descovrir “uncover, unroof, unveil, reveal, betray,” from Late Latin discooperire, from Latin dis- “opposite of” (see dis-) + cooperire “to cover up” (see cover). At first with a sense of betrayal or malicious exposure (discoverer originally meant “informant”); the meaning “to obtain knowledge or sight of what was not known” is from 1550s. Related: Discovered; discovering.

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