3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Discerning \Dis*cern"ing\, a.
Acute; shrewd; sagacious; sharp-sighted. --Macaulay.
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]:
discerning
adj 1: having or revealing keen insight and good judgment; "a
discerning critic"; "a discerning reader" [ant: {undiscerning}]
2: unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic; "a discerning
editor"; "a discreet silence" [syn: {discreet}]
3: quick to understand; "a kind and apprehensive friend"-
Nathaniel Hawthorne [syn: {apprehensive}]
4: able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive;
"discerning taste"; "a fine eye for color" [syn: {fine}]
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