Detect
[dɪ'tekt] or [dɪ'tɛkt]
Definition
(verb.) discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of; 'She detected high levels of lead in her drinking water'; 'We found traces of lead in the paint'.
Edited by Claudette--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Detected.
(v. t.) To uncover; to discover; to find out; to bring to light; as, to detect a crime or a criminal; to detect a mistake in an account.
(v. t.) To inform against; to accuse.
Inputed by Giles
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Discover, expose, descry, find out, bring to light, lay open.
Inputed by Dan
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Discover, descry, unmask, expose
ANT:Miss, lose, misobserve, ignore, connive
Inputed by Adeline
Definition
v.t. (lit.) to uncover—hence to discover: to find out.—adjs. Detect′able Detect′ible.—ns. Detect′er -or one who detects: an apparatus for detecting something as a detector-lock which shows if it has been tampered with; Detec′tion discovery of something hidden: state of being found out.—adj. Detect′ive employed in detecting.—n. a policeman employed in the investigation of special cases of crime or in watching special classes of wrong-doers usually not in uniform.—Private detective one employed by a private person to gain information or to watch his interests.
Typed by Denis
Examples
- In either case the distance through which the prongs move is very small and the period is very short, so that the eye can seldom detect the movement itself. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- The only trace of his former self that I could detect reappeared, every now and then, in his manner towards Miss Fairlie. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- He could detect a design upon it when nobody else had any perception of the fact. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- She had even learnt to detect, in the very gentleness which had first delighted her, an affectation and a sameness to disgust and weary. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- I passed whole hours in going from house to house, listening whether I could detect some lurking sign of human existence. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Hence, in order to detect the presence of acid in a substance, one has merely to put some of the substance on blue litmus paper, and note whether or not the latter changes color. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- He was never on the lookout to detect a slight, but saw one as soon as anybody when intentionally given. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- He took none that could be detected, but, aware of his employer's suspicions, stood with his eyes on the ground. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- They were made to pronounce the word Shibboleth and were easily detected as enemies when they pronounced it Sibboleth. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The anxious terror in which Mr. Hale lived lest his son should be detected and captured, far out-weighed the pleasure he derived from his presence. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- I never detected a sign of the medicine bottles being tampered with, I never saw Mrs. Rubelle say a word to the Count, or the Count to her. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Unless there turn out to be further complications, such as I have not at present detected--yes, said Lydgate. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- At this sally another special laughed, and then tried to look so supernaturally solemn, that the magistrate detected him immediately. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Mr. Wallace has also detected one such case with birds, but we have none with the larger quadrupeds. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- The thermometer can also be used in detecting adulterants. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- Edison gave him one quick, searching glance and, detecting a bluff, replied in an offhand manner: There's a five-pound bottle in No. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- I cannot remember detecting gratitude in his face. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Koch, whose success in detecting the microbes which cause consumption and cholera has made him famous the world over. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Even those of us who regard ourselves as active in mothering the process and alert in detecting its growth are by no means constantly aware of any great change. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Editor: Verna