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more about discern
discern |
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}]
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