3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Discern \Dis*cern"\, v. i.
1. To see or understand the difference; to make distinction;
as to discern between good and evil, truth and falsehood.
More than sixscore thousand that cannot discern
between their right hand their left --Jonah iv
11.
2. To make cognizance. [Obs.] --Bacon.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Discern \Dis*cern"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Discerned}; p. pr &
vb n. {Discerning}.] [F. discerner, L. discernere,
discretum dis- + cernere to separate, distinguish. See
{Certain}, and cf {Discreet}.]
1. To see and identify by noting a difference or differences;
to note the distinctive character of to discriminate; to
distinguish.
To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms.
--Boyle.
A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern
from a right stone. --Robynson
(More's
Utopia).
2. To see by the eye or by the understanding; to perceive and
recognize; as to discern a difference.
And [I] beheld among the simple ones, I discerned
among the youths, a young man void of understanding.
--Prov. vii.
7.
Our unassisted sight . . . is not acute enough to
discern the minute texture of visible objects.
--Beattie.
I wake, and I discern the truth. --Tennyson.
Syn: To perceive; distinguish; discover; penetrate;
discriminate; espy; descry; detect. See {Perceive}.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
discern
v : detect with the senses "The fleeing convicts were picked
out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards"; "I
can't make out the faces in this photograph" [syn: {recognize},
{distinguish}, {pick out}, {make out}, {tell apart}]
more about discern
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