Library / English Dictionary

SPY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: spied   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(military) a secret agent hired by a state to obtain information about its enemies or by a business to obtain industrial secrets from competitors

Synonyms:

spy; undercover agent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("spy" is a kind of...):

intelligence agent; intelligence officer; operative; secret agent (a person secretly employed in espionage for a government)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spy"):

counterspy; mole (a spy who works against enemy espionage)

double agent (a spy who works for two mutually antagonistic countries)

espionage agent (someone employed to spy on another country or business competitor)

foreign agent (a spy for a foreign country)

infiltrator (someone who takes up a position surreptitiously for the purpose of espionage)

sleeper (a spy or saboteur or terrorist planted in an enemy country who lives there as a law-abiding citizen until activated by a prearranged signal)

Instance hyponyms:

Margarete Gertrud Zelle; Mata Hari (Dutch dancer who was executed by the French as a German spy in World War I (1876-1917))

Derivation:

spy (secretly collect sensitive or classified information; engage in espionage)

spy (watch, observe, or inquire secretly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A secret watcher; someone who secretly watches other people

Example:

my spies tell me that you had a good time last night

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("spy" is a kind of...):

looker; spectator; viewer; watcher; witness (a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spy"):

snoop; snooper (a spy who makes uninvited inquiries into the private affairs of others)

shadow; shadower; tail (a spy employed to follow someone and report their movements)

Derivation:

spy (secretly collect sensitive or classified information; engage in espionage)

spy (watch, observe, or inquire secretly)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Secretly collect sensitive or classified information; engage in espionage

Example:

spy for the Russians

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "spy" is one way to...):

enquire; inquire; investigate (conduct an inquiry or investigation of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

spy ((military) a secret agent hired by a state to obtain information about its enemies or by a business to obtain industrial secrets from competitors)

spy (a secret watcher; someone who secretly watches other people)

spying (the act of keeping a secret watch for intelligence purposes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Watch, observe, or inquire secretly

Synonyms:

sleuth; snoop; spy; stag

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "spy" is one way to...):

monitor; supervise (keep tabs on; keep an eye on; keep under surveillance)

"Spy" entails doing...:

enquire; inquire; investigate (conduct an inquiry or investigation of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

spy ((military) a secret agent hired by a state to obtain information about its enemies or by a business to obtain industrial secrets from competitors)

spy (a secret watcher; someone who secretly watches other people)

spying (keeping a secret or furtive watch)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Catch sight of

Synonyms:

descry; espy; spot; spy

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "spy" is one way to...):

sight; spy (catch sight of; to perceive with the eyes)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

spying (the act of detecting something; catching sight of something)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Catch sight of; to perceive with the eyes

Example:

he caught sight of the king's men coming over the ridge

Synonyms:

sight; spy

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "spy" is one way to...):

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "spy"):

descry; espy; spot; spy (catch sight of)

detect; discover; find; notice; observe (discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Credits

 Context examples: 

After he had travelled a little way, he spied a dog lying by the roadside and panting as if he were tired.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The spacecraft spied a broad, warm high-altitude vortex at Saturn's southern pole but none at the planet's northern pole.

(Saturn's Famous Hexagon May Tower Above the Clouds, NASA)

“Thank God!” said Alleyne suddenly, as he spied in the lamp-light a shock of blazing red hair which fringed a steel cap high above the heads of the crowd.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thomas Mugridge is a sneak, a spy, an informer.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

If a gentleman was the victim of spies, intruders, and informers (but still naming no names), that was his own pleasure.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Since the party, she had been more eager than ever, and had planned many ways of making friends with him, but he had not been seen lately, and Jo began to think he had gone away, when she one day spied a brown face at an upper window, looking wistfully down into their garden, where Beth and Amy were snow-balling one another.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Could they be perpetrated without being known, in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such a footing, where every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

That part of me which I had the power of projecting, had lately been much exercised and nourished; it had seemed to me of late as though the body of Edward Hyde had grown in stature, as though (when I wore that form) I were conscious of a more generous tide of blood; and I began to spy a danger that, if this were much prolonged, the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown, the power of voluntary change be forfeited, and the character of Edward Hyde become irrevocably mine.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He spoke one evening of the importance of the secret, and I have some recollection that he said that no doubt foreign spies would pay a great deal to have it.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“You infernal spies!” the man cried. “What are you doing there?”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)