Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Espy   Listen
noun
Espy  n.  (pl. espies)  A spy; a scout. (Obs.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Espy" Quotes from Famous Books



... soon with altered voice, said she— "Off, wandering mother! Peak and pine! I have power to bid thee flee." Alas! what ails poor Geraldine? Why stares she with unsettled eye? Can she the bodiless dead espy? And why with hollow voice cries she, "Off, woman, off! this hour is mine— Though thou her guardian spirit be, Off, woman, off! ...
— Poems of Coleridge • Coleridge, ed Arthur Symons

... impostor, and I supposed, in my minte, he was an espy; for I look away from him, and in a moment I look to him again, and I behold his tablets. Oh! he was to the work of writing down all I say! Indeed I was angry. But soon I discover he was no impostor and no espy; and I only find I was myself the monster he had come ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay

... the ist of March. The Line was passed. Far off, on the starboard bow, the lofty headland of Cape Francisco was seen, though dim and indistinct. All day long the seamen, with eager eyes, had been looking out ahead and on either side, hoping to espy the tiny speck of white just above the horizon. The day was clear, the sun shone brightly down from an unclouded sky, and the Golden Hind in hot haste sped on, her canvas spread wide on either side to catch the breeze. Midday was passed. In spite of the heat every one was ...
— Notable Voyagers - From Columbus to Nordenskiold • W.H.G. Kingston and Henry Frith

... Reuben chances to espy an old-fashioned round life-buoy lashed to the taffrail, and, cutting it loose, makes himself fast to it. He overhears the boatswain say, yonder by the forecastle, "These thumpings will break her in two in an hour. Cling to ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 • Various

... that looks on glass, On it may stay his eye, Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass, And the heavens espy." ...
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Henry David Thoreau

... the hollows are knee-deep with painted leaves, has joys the eager tongue trips over itself in the endeavor to recount. Boy and Boy's mother took the six o'clock train to town last night. This morning, throwing open the parlor blinds, I espy the six flat, white beans and the three red-speckled crab-apples. They were so much to the owner; except for the value imparted by association with the dancing blue eyes and the tight clutch of fingers that had green stains on them when the wrestle with the pods ...
— The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) • Marion Harland

... in all her glory crowned, Passing by that cleere fountain of thine eye, Her sun-shine face there chaunsing to espy, Forgot herselfe, and thought she had been drowned. And thus, whilst Beautie on her beauty gazed, Who then, yet liuing, deemd she had been dying, And yet in death some hope of life espying, At her owne rare perfections so amazed; Twixt ioy and griefe, yet with a smyling frowning, ...
— Minor Poems of Michael Drayton • Michael Drayton

... boldest lyric inspiration should not chide and insult, but should announce and lead the civil code and the day's work. But now the two things seem irreconcilably parted. We have violated law upon law until we stand amidst ruins, and when by chance we espy a coincidence between reason and the phenomena, we are surprised. Beauty should be the dowry of every man and woman, as invariably as sensation; but it is rare. Health or sound organization should be universal. Genius should be the child of genius, and every child should be inspired; ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... right fork of the road in advance, and an instant panic ensued. Discovery was hard upon them. Their laborious device was brought to naught should any eye espy them in their hasty flight to the State line. It had not seemed impossible that ere the day should dawn they might be far away in those impenetrable forests where one may journey many a league, meeting naught more inimical or speculative than bear or deer. It still ...
— Who Crosses Storm Mountain? - 1911 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... a bright noble face we espy, 'Tis a boy of ten years we shall find; There's a spice of the rogue in that merry young eye, With good sense ...
— The Kings and Queens of England with Other Poems • Mary Ann H. T. Bigelow

... that's levelled high, Though dimly, can the hope espy So solid soon, one day; For every chain must then be broke, And hatred none will dare evoke, ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo

... wherefore he arrived there so late that, the gates being shut and the draw-bridges raised, he could get no admission. Thereupon, despairing and disconsolate, he looked about, weeping, for a place where he might shelter, so at the least it should not snow upon him, and chancing to espy a house that projected somewhat beyond the walls of the town, he determined to go bide thereunder till day. Accordingly, betaking himself thither, he found there a door, albeit it was shut, and gathering at foot thereof somewhat of straw that was therenigh, he laid himself down ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio

... from your beef steak and coffee, or morning paper—just as you had got into a deeply interesting bit of information on "breadstuff's," California, or the Queen's last baby, to open your door, and espy a grim-visaged and begrimed son of the Emerald Isle, just rearing his phiz above the pyramid of ancient and defiled leather, and ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley

... Still cease from friendship when they cease from drink. The empty fop who scarce for man will pass, Ne'er sees a friend but when he views his glass. Friendship first springs from sympathy of mind, Which to complete the virtues all combine, And only found 'mongst men who can espy The merits of his friend without envy. Thus all pretending friendship's but a dream, Whose base is ...
— For Auld Lang Syne • Ray Woodward

... Ah! little mare Brownie, what are you doing? Did you never before see a charred stump that you should shy so? Do you fancy that you are a thoroughbred that you should bolt at such a gentle touch of the spur? So you espy the half-way house, do you, and fancy that fifteen miles, up and down, in a trifle under two hours, has earned you a spell, a bit of a feed, and something of a washing? And you are right. Take charge, Mr. Blackfellow-ostler, and while you do your duty let me amuse myself with my ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior

... send furth Corbie Messingeir, Into the air to espy Gif he saw ony mountains dry. Sum sayis the Rauin did furth remane, And com nocht to ...
— The Proverbs of Scotland • Alexander Hislop

... say that they were about to hang Aucassin his enemy, and came that way. Aucassin failed not to espy him; and gripping his sword, he smote him through the helmet so that he clave it to the skull. He was so stunned that he fell to earth; and Aucassin put out his hand and took him prisoner, and led him off by the nose-guard of his helmet, and ...
— Aucassin and Nicolette - translated from the Old French • Anonymous

... the peace denied at home. The Muse, with glance prophetic, sees her stand (Forsaken, silent lady) on the strand Of farthest India, sick'ning at the roar Of each dull wave, slow dash'd upon the shore; Sending, at intervals, an aching eye O'er the wide waters, vainly, to espy The long-expected bark, in which to find Some tidings of a world she left behind. At such a time shall start the gushing tear, For scenes her childhood lov'd, now doubly dear. At such a time shall frantic mem'ry wake Pangs of ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV - Poems and Plays • Charles and Mary Lamb

... a Japanese were talking earnestly. At any rate, the little brown man was. Hal was listening, occasionally shaking his head. Then Hastings happened to espy his chums. He turned to the Japanese, to take his leave, but the little brown man followed him across the floor, still talking in ...
— The Submarine Boys for the Flag - Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam • Victor G. Durham

... as to the manner of catching the queen. I seize her very gently, as I espy her among the bees, and by taking care to crush none of them, run not the least risk of being stung. The queen herself never stings, even if handled ever ...
— Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee - A Bee Keeper's Manual • L. L. Langstroth

... An arbour green with wandis long and small Railed about, and so with leaves beset Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knet, That lyf was none, walking there forbye, That might within scarce any wight espy. So thick the branches and the leave's green Beshaded all the alleys that there were. And midst of every harbour might be seen The sharpe, green, sweet juniper, Growing so fair with branches here and there, That ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth

... please him every means she'd take, And a pudding large did for him make; But in trying to obtain a sip, Into the batter did he slip! The batter in the pot went plump; Tom made the pudding skip and jump! His mother, with affright, did this espy, And gave it to a tinker passing by; Tom scream'd so loud, that, in dismay, He threw it down, ...
— An Entertaining History of Tom Thumb - William Raine's Edition • Unknown

... Richardson was once turned to account by Sheridan in a very characteristic manner. Having had a hackney-coach in employ for five or six hours, and not being provided with the means of paying it, he happened to espy Richardson in the street, and proposed to take him in the coach some part of his way. The offer being accepted, Sheridan lost no time in starting a subject of conversation, on which he knew his ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2 • Thomas Moore

... review of the great increase and value of Woman's Work in Church Philanthropies. Mrs. May Wright Sewall (Ind.) demonstrated the wonderful Progress of Women in Education. The New Education possessed the charm of novelty in being presented by Miss Grace Espy Patton, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Colorado, a lady so delicate and dainty that, when Miss Anthony led her forward and said, "It has always been charged that voting and officeholding will make women coarse and unwomanly; ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... there are hues not always faded, Which speak a mind not all degraded Even by the crimes through which it waded: The common crowd but see the gloom Of wayward deeds, and fitting doom; The close observer can espy A noble soul, and lineage high: Alas! though both bestowed in vain, 870 Which Grief could change, and Guilt could stain, It was no vulgar tenement To which such lofty gifts were lent, And still with little less than dread On such ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... next morning stood Amongst the leaves so gay, There did he espy the same young man, ...
— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various

... began I with sad and careful heart, to consider of the nature and largeness of my sin, and to search in the Word of God, if I could in any place espy a word of promise, or any encouraging sentence by which I might take relief. Wherefore I began to consider that third of Mark, All manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. Which place, methought, at a blush, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... fields were known! Death hovered o'er the maddening rout, And, in the thrilling battle-shout, Sent for the bloody banquet out A summons of his own. Through rolling smoke the Demon's eye Could well each destined guest espy, Well could his ear in ecstasy Distinguish every tone That filled the chorus of the fray - From cannon-roar and trumpet-bray, From charging squadrons' wild hurra, From the wild clang that marked their way, - Down to the dying groan, And the last sob of life's decay, When breath was all ...
— Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott • Sir Walter Scott

... home, there did he espy A loving sight to spy or see, There did he espy his own three sons, Young Christy Grahame, the ...
— Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series • Various

... scarcely perceptible in the distant horizon: they now unfold themselves on either side, forming as it were a double amphitheatre. The sun bursts through the clouds, and gilds alternately the shrubs and meadows on the distant shores, and we now espy the tops of two masts of ships just peeping above the surface of the deep. What an awful warning to adventurous men! We now sail close by those very sands (the Goodwin) where so many unfortunate persons have found ...
— Travels in England in 1782 • Charles P. Moritz

... not object, although he was not altogether pleased. For Mr. Brooke's house was immediately opposite the Kenyons', and Miss Ethel was as likely as not to be sitting at the drawing-room window. Her sharp eyes would espy him from afar, and she might ask Lesley if he had been to church with her. Not a very great difficulty, but Oliver had a far-seeing mind, and one question might lead to others of a ...
— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... northern main, And all around, the ever restless waves, Like white sea-wolves, howl on the lonely sands, Clings a low roof, close by the sounding surge. If, in your summer rambles by the shore, His spray-tost cottage you may chance espy, Enter and greet the blind ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 49, November, 1861 • Various

... man, before he goes into a house, should look to and espy all the doorways (so that he can find his way out quickly again), for he can never know where foes may be sitting in ...
— Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn • Lafcadio Hearn

... There was scarcely any hour from noon of the day (for some of them had horns) to the small sweet hours when no one heard them, that they forgot to salute the very large, quiet, wingless owl whom they could espy moving about by day above their mouse-runs, or preening her white and sometimes blue and sometimes grey feathers morning and evening in a large square hole high up in the front wall. And they could not understand at all why no swift depredating graces nor any ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... walls. During work-hours nobody passes along these streets, and on raising one's head one sees only lofty chimneys belching forth thick coal smoke above the roofs of big buildings with dusty window panes. And if any large cart entrance happens to be open one may espy deep yards crowded with drays and full of acrid vapor. The only sounds are the strident puffs of jets of steam, the dull rumbling of machinery, and the sudden rattle of ironwork lowered from the carts to the pavement. But on Sundays ...
— Fruitfulness - Fecondite • Emile Zola

... off before them, their feelings changed, and they blamed themselves as traitors to their general. They now railed at their officers for marching so slowly, and placing themselves on the heights overlooking the sea towards Epirus, they kept watch to see if they could espy the vessels which were to transport ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... she loved nature, but he was struck afresh with the vivacity of her observation of it, and with her knowledge of plants and stones. At that season the wild flowers had mostly departed, but a few of them lingered, and Miss Garland never failed to espy them in their outlying corners. They interested her greatly; she was charmed when they were old friends, and charmed even more when they were new. She displayed a very light foot in going in quest of them, and had soon covered the front seat of the carriage with a tangle of strange vegetation. ...
— Roderick Hudson • Henry James

... the tortoise, let this camel Stalk o'er your back unbruis'd: sleep with the lion, And let this brood of secure foolish mice Play with your nostrils, till the time be ripe For th' bloody audit, and the fatal gripe: Aim like a cunning fowler, close one eye, That you the better may your game espy. ...
— The White Devil • John Webster

... Church; in the 'Pillars of Society,' the dominant bourgeoisie. Whatever he attacks is shivered into splinters by his profound and superior criticism. Only the shattered ruins remain, and we are unable to espy the new social institutions beyond them. Bjoernson is a conciliatory spirit who wages war without bitterness. April sunshine glints and gleams through all his works, while those of Ibsen, with their sombre seriousness, lie in deep shadow. Ibsen loves ...
— Essays on Scandinavian Literature • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

... proceeding with his princely trayne, He shortly met the Tygre, and the Bore, Which with the simple Camell raged sore In bitter words, seeking to take occasion Upon his fleshly corpse to make invasion: 1090 But soone as they this mock-king did espy, Their troublous strife they stinted by and by, [Stinted by and by, stopped at once.] Thinking indeed that it the Lyon was. He then, to prove whether his powre would pas As currant, sent the Foxe to them streight way, 1095 Commaunding them their cause of strife bewray; And, if that ...
— The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 • Edmund Spenser

... way by a big wall, hears us pass. She stops and would look if she could. We espy her figure in that twilight of which she is beginning to make a part, though fine and ...
— Light • Henri Barbusse

... clear sun, the world's bright eye, In at our window peeping: Lo! how he blusheth to espy Us idle wenches sleeping. ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various

... indeed Jean Breboeuf who, strolling beyond the outer edge of the village, had been among the first to espy an approaching party of visitors. Of any travelers possible, none could have been more important to the prisoners. Too late, yet welcome even now, the embassy from New France among the Iroquois had arrived. In an instant the village was ...
— The Mississippi Bubble • Emerson Hough

... he hath recited to his friends, That now himself persuades himself 'tis so. But why doth Crassus tell his lies so rife, Of bridges, towns, and things that have no life? He is a lawyer, and doth well espy That for such lies an action will not ...
— The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Christopher Marlowe

... "Verily my breast is straitened and it hath passed through my thought that we fare forth, I and thou (and Eunuch Masrur shall make a third), and we will promenade the main streets of Baghdad and solace ourselves with seeing its several places and peradventure I may espy somewhat to hearten my heart and clear off my care and relieve me of what is with me of straitness of breast." Ja'afar made answer, "O Commander of the Faithful, know that thou art Caliph and Regent and ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... counsel him of this holy errand he hath emprised so as that he may honourably achieve it. He rode until that he came at evensong to a hold that was in the midst of the forest. And it was compassed about of a great water, and had about it great clumps of trees so as that scarce with much pains might he espy the hall, that was right large. The river that compassed it about was water royal, for it lost not its right name nor its body as far as the sea. And Messire Gawain bethought him that it was the hold of a ...
— High History of the Holy Graal • Unknown

... sometimes seen to lie Couched on the bald top of an eminence, Wonder to all who do the same espy By what means it could thither come, and whence; So that it seems a thing endued with sense: Like a sea-beast crawled forth, that on a shelf Of rock or sand reposeth, there to ...
— Town Geology • Charles Kingsley

... morning stood Amongst the leaves so gay, There did he espy the same young man Come drooping ...
— The Book of Old English Ballads • George Wharton Edwards

... agony, sent a bullet through his heart. The shot did not alter his position—as the horn still held on to the branch—but the animal ceased struggling and hung down dead,—to remain there, doubtless, until some hungry vulture should espy him from afar, and, swooping down, strip the flesh from ...
— The Boy Hunters • Captain Mayne Reid

... am talking here that serpent! that copperhead! that cobra capella! is coming round again! How astonishingly tenacious of life all foul, venomous creatures are!" exclaimed Cloudesley, as he happened to espy Throg moving slightly where he lay, and ...
— The Missing Bride • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... thousand doleful sighs and mournful Cooes. Or as the loving Mullet that true Fish, Her fellow lost, nor joy nor life do wish, But lanches on that shore there for to dye, Where she her captive husband doth espy, Mine being gone I lead a joyless life, I have a living sphere, yet seem no wife; But worst of all, to him can't steer my course, I here, he there, alas, both kept by force; Return, my Dear, my Joy, my only Love, Unto thy Hinde, thy Mullet and thy Dove, ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell

... of nations;(555) that law, which was enacted by Europe for its own emolument, to the prejudice of the other three parts of the globe, and which bestows the property of whole realms on the first person who happens to espy them, who can annex them to the crown of Great Britain, in lieu of those it has ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole

... sensibility than another man," said Pen, with some spirit. "That is what makes him a poet. I suppose that he sees and feels more keenly: it is that which makes him speak, of what he feels and sees. You speak eagerly enough in your leading articles when you espy a false argument in an opponent, or detect a quack in the House. Paley, who does not care for anything else in the world, will talk for an hour about a question of law. Give another the privilege which you take yourself, and the free use of his faculty, and let him be what nature has ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray

... we believe such an accusation. Trace a man's career from his cradle to his grave and mark how Fortune has treated him. You will find that when he is once dead she can for the most part be vindicated from the charge of any but very superficial fickleness. Her blindness is the merest fable; she can espy her favourites long before they are born. We are as days and have had our parents for our yesterdays, but through all the fair weather of a clear parental sky the eye of Fortune can discern the coming ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler

... were not left quiet. The beating of gongs, shouts, and an occasional shot, gave life to the scene. With my glass I could espy our forces at the top of the hill, pleased no doubt to see us coming to their support. At night loud shouts and firing from the rebels caused us to prepare for an attack; but it proved to be nothing but lights moving about the hill-side, with what intent we were ignorant. The jungle ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel

... little friar, "can draw the long-bow. She must bear no goodwill to Sir Ralph; and if she should espy him from her tower, she may testify her recognition with a cloth-yard shaft. She is not so infallible a markswoman, but that she might shoot at a crow and kill a pigeon. She might peradventure miss the knight, and hit me, who ...
— Maid Marian • Thomas Love Peacock

... to attack us in revenge, unless they had been scared by the rifles and by the size of our party. They advised me not to remain long in this spot, as it would be very dangerous for my wife to be left almost alone during the day, when we were hunting, and that the Base would be certain to espy us from the mountains, and would most probably attack and carry her off when they were assured of our departure. She was not very nervous about this, but she immediately called the dragoman, Mahomet, who knew the use of a gun, and she asked him if he would stand by her in case they were ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various

... garden or lurked hardly distinguishable among the sticks and stones of the forest, morality was just an understanding between a man and his neighbour, a temporary agreement entered on by any two hunting savages whom He might happen to espy between the tree-trunks. When He dwelt among the peaks of Sinai or Olympus, the sphere of morality had extended to the whole tribe that occupied the subjacent valley. It came to include the nation, all the subjects of each sovereign state, ...
— The World in Chains - Some Aspects of War and Trade • John Mavrogordato

... he paced beside the sure-footed beast, who leisurely picked his way along the familiar road. "The moon will be up, to be sure, ere long; but it is ill travelling in the night. It is well to get clear of this neighbourhood in the dark, for fear your father might chance to espy you and make your going difficult. Yet I would have you ask shelter for your steed and yourself tonight at the little hostelry you will find just this side Hammerton Heath. The heath is an ill place for travellers, as you doubtless know. If you should lose the road, as is like enough, it being as ...
— The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn - A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot • Evelyn Everett-Green

... of that tree-clad hill I go, And towards my father I gaze, Till with my mind's eye his form I espy, And my mind's ear hears how he says:— "Alas for my son on service abroad! He rests not from morning till eve. May he careful be and come back to me! While he is away, ...
— Chinese Literature • Anonymous

... ordinary courtesy and prudence in the gratification of his darling method. 'He came to my country sudden,' said Paoli in his broken English, 'and he fetched me some letters of recommending him. And I supposed, in my mente he was in the privacy one espy; for I look away from him to my other companies, and when I look back to him I behold it in his hands his tablet, and one pencil. O, he was at the work, I give it you my honour, of writing down all what I say to some persons whatsoever in the room. I was angry enough, pretty much so. But soon ...
— James Boswell - Famous Scots Series • William Keith Leask

... made such an ordinance afore by Merlin, that there should no man of war ride nor go in no country on this side Trent water, but if he had a token from King Arthur, where through the king's enemies durst not ride as they did to-fore to espy. ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume I (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory

... Aratus of Cilicia, whose very name has a smack of tillage, has left us a book about the weather [Greek: Dosaemeia] which is quite as good to mark down a hay-day by as the later meteorologies of Professor Espy or ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., April, 1863, No. LXVI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics. • Various

... challenge to all knights of Great Britaine." The challenge was to this effect, "That Meliades, their noble master, burning with an earnest desire to trie the valour of his young yeares in foraigne countryes, and to know where vertue triumphed most, had sent them abroad to espy the same, who, after their long travailes in all countreys, and returne," had nowhere discovered it, "save in the fortunate isle of Great Britaine: which ministring matter of exceeding joy to their young Meliades, who (as they said) could lineally derive his pedegree ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson

... which God's people are commanded to resort; yea, within which they are commanded to close themselves in the time of greatest adversity. The manner of speaking is borrowed from that judgment and foresight which God has printed in this our nature; for when men espy great tempests appearing to come, they will not willingly remain uncovered in the fields, but straightway they will draw them to their houses or holds, that they may escape the vehemence of the same; and if they fear any enemy pursues them, they will shut their ...
— The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. • John Welch, Bishop Latimer and John Knox

... and stay in their order; not to be disturbed, and none of them to sail out and offer battle. So about evening, the Athenians sailing back, he would not let the seamen go out of the ships before two or three, which he had sent to espy, were returned, after seeing the enemies disembark. And thus they did the next day, and the third, and so to the fourth. So that the Athenians grew extremely confident, and disdained their enemies, as if they had been afraid ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... some eight or ten carriages, which formed, as it were, a funeral cortege behind us. But I could perceive that these carriages were filled for the most part by young men, and that there was no contemporary of Crasweller to be seen at all. As we went up the town hill, I could espy Barnes gibbering on the doorstep of his house, and Tallowax brandishing a large knife in his hand, and Exors waving a paper over his head, which I well knew to be a copy of the Act of our Assembly; but I could only pretend not to see them as ...
— The Fixed Period • Anthony Trollope

... and lumber, kept its legend in faithful bronze or marble. The Madonnas, under their iron canopies looked down, serene and beneficent, standing, here, above a little frequented court; there, over the gateway of an old palace. There was one which Pauline was the first to espy, as they approached it under the arch of a bridge. The figure was upon the angle of a wall, glassed just where two canals met at her feet. Above her head was a square canopy, over the edge of which delicate green vines and tendrils ...
— A Venetian June • Anna Fuller

... tangled but my eye Can map its confines and its courses; Yet on life's map who can espy Where hides his foe—where he shall die?" So Herman said, and his resources Resigned unto ...
— Tales of the Chesapeake • George Alfred Townsend

... taking a solitary Walk by the Side of a Thicket, he espy'd one of the Queen's Eunuchs, with several of his Attendants, coming towards him, hunting about, in deep Concern, both here and there, like Persons almost in Despair, and seeking, with Impatience, for something lost of the utmost Importance. Young Man, said the ...
— Zadig - Or, The Book of Fate • Voltaire

... Marie walked in the market-place, she used to like to look at the notary's house, and at him, if she could espy him in the street. The house was a fine one, and the notary, in spite of iron-grey hair and a keen eye, good-looking; but that was not why Marie was interested; it was because he and his office ...
— A Dozen Ways Of Love • Lily Dougall

... observe, not to feel, Not to fancy, if simple of eye One may be among images reaped For a shift of the glance, as grain: Profitless froth you espy Ashore after billows have leaped. I fled nothing, nothing pursued: The changeful visible face Of our Mother I sought for my food; Crumbs by the way to sustain. Her sentence I knew past grace. Myself I had lost of us twain, Once bound in mirroring ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... of souls serene, When they have sworn, and stedfast mean, Counting the cost, in all t' espy Their God, in all ...
— The Christian Year • Rev. John Keble

... half an eye What stands before him can espy; But optics sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 88, February, 1865 • Various

... Some may espy a fundamental contradiction in everything that I am saying, now expressing a longing for unending life, now affirming that this earthly life does not possess the value that is given to it. Contradiction? To be sure! The contradiction of my heart that says Yes and of my head that says ...
— Tragic Sense Of Life • Miguel de Unamuno

... the wall, loitering here to gaze into a cave, and there to study crude red paintings in the nooks. And sometimes he halted thoughtfully and did not see anything. At length he rounded a corner of cliff to espy Nas Ta Bega sitting upon the ledge, reposeful and watchful as usual. Shefford told the Indian they would be climbing out soon, and then he sat down to wait and let his gaze rove over ...
— The Rainbow Trail • Zane Grey

... mount; and lo, How small the biggest parts of earth's proud title shew! Where shall I find the noble British land? Lo, I at last a northern speck espy, Which in the sea does lie, And seems a grain o' the sand. For this will any sin, or bleed? Of civil wars is this the meed? And is it this, alas, which we, Oh, irony of words! do ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 • Leigh Hunt

... When he leaves, Khalid, with a scowl on his brow, paces up and down the room, saying, 'They would treat me like a school boy; they would have me speak by rule, and according to their own dictation. They even espy my words and actions as if I were an enemy of the Constitution. No; let them find another. The servile spouters in the land are as plenty as summer flies. After I deliver my address to-day, Shakib, ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... a shady lane one might espy her endeavoring to hold a friendly confab with some busy farmer's wife who, while hanging out her washing, endeavored to hold a clothespin in her mouth, and at the same time answer Mrs. ...
— Randy and Her Friends • Amy Brooks

... from where he is[24:2] he do espy Some Apricot upon a bough thereby Which overhangs the tree on which he stands, Climbs up, and strives to take them with ...
— The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare • Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

... her form and favour show to me, * Laud to her All-creating Lord, laud to the Lord on high, She left me full of mourning, sleepless, sick with pine and pain * And ceaseth not my heart to yearn her mystery[FN208] to espy." ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton

... Not I! and if I were, what is there to espy in you? Although, I recollect, his frequent question About you and your spouse might lead to some Suspicion; but you best know—what—and why. I am ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... I return. I care not to trust the faith of those idle soldiers, who, perchance, think they have done enough of duty to-day, and your keener eyes may keep a closer watch on the landing place, and sooner espy the motions of the enemy, who ...
— The Rivals of Acadia - An Old Story of the New World • Harriet Vaughan Cheney

... need at present nor fear to need to be so troubled, nay, and more, though I do not think that he would deny me any friendship now if I did need it, but only that he has not the face to be free with me, but do look upon me as a remembrancer of his former vanity, and an espy upon his present practices, for I perceive that Pickering to-day is great with him again, and that he has done a great courtesy for Mr. Pierce, the chirurgeon, to a good value, though both these and none but these did I mention by name to my Lord in the business which ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... ill-favored, hardly cast In mortal mould? By her, be sure, was wrought This direful sorcery. Demon or witch, Yakshi or Rakshasi, or gliding ghost, Or something frightful, was she. Hers this deed Of midnight murders; doubt there can be none. Ah, if we could espy that hateful one, The ruin of our march, the woe-maker, With stones, clods, canes, or clubs, nay, with clenched fists, We'd strike her dead, the murderess of our band!" Trembling the Princess heard those angry words; And—saddened, maddened, ...
— Hindu Literature • Epiphanius Wilson

... any man with half an eye What stands before him may espy; But optics sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to ...
— Brief History of English and American Literature • Henry A. Beers

... "I think I espy,"' he quoted presently, "'virtue and valour crouched in thine eye.' And yet.., and yet... if I had cause to think it true, I'd... I'd run you through the vitals—jus' so," and he prodded Richard's waistcoat with the point of his pipe-stem. His swarthy face darkened, ...
— Mistress Wilding • Rafael Sabatini

... thy fill of her." Cried Obayd, "May Allah requite thee for me with all good, O my lord!" and taking the key, went up, rejoicing. The other thought his words had pleased him and that he consented thereto; so he took the sword and following him unseen, stood to espy what should happen between him and his wife. This is how it fared with the merchant Abd al-Rahman; but as for the jeweller, when he came to the chamber door, he heard his wife weeping with sore weeping for that Kamar al-Zaman had married another than her, and the ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton

... take care!" cried an aged old crone, "Take care what you promise," said she. "At first 'twill be fun, But, in the long run, You'll wish you had let the thing be. Through this stick with an eye I look and espy That for ages and ages you'll sit and you'll sew, And longer and longer the seams will grow, And you'll wish you never had asked to sew. But naught that I say Can keep back the day, For the men will return to their hunting and rowing, And leave to ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... with that exception she approved her maid's proposal, and sent her to see if the chest were still where she had seen it. The maid, returning, reported that there it was, and, being young and strong, got Ruggieri, with the lady's help, upon her shoulders; and so the lady, going before to espy if any folk came that way, and the maid following, they came to the chest, and having laid Ruggieri therein, closed it and left ...
— The Decameron, Volume I • Giovanni Boccaccio

... flattering table of her eye!— Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow, And quarter'd in her heart!—he doth espy Himself love's traitor! This is pity now, That, hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there should be In such a love so vile ...
— King John • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... reaching the pond they slacken their speed, and all at once came to a dead halt! Had they already discovered their prey? In an instant their fears were relieved on this score. From their marshy lair they were able, imperfectly, to espy the foe, and they saw that the cause of halting was simply to water their panting steeds. They could also make out to hear the enemy's voice, and so far as they could gather, the subject was enough to inspire them with terror, for the escaped ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean

... dresser is a pitcher of freshly clipped roses, the morning dew still upon them, and you only cease to admire as you espy your mail that lies there awaiting your hand. News from home and loved ones greets you before these new-found friends do! You have not seen the good folks who live here, only the old colored man who pretended that he was going to ...
— Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... Dian' seem, "Save that a golden bow the goddess bears; "The nymph a bow of horn: yet still to most "Mistake was easy. From Lycaeum's height, "His head encompass'd with the pointed pine, "Returning, her the lustful Pan espy'd, "And cry'd:—Fair virgin grant a god's request,— "A god who burns to wed thee. Here he stays. "Through pathless forests flies the nymph, and scorns "His warm intreaties, till the gravelly stream "Of Ladon, smoothly winding, she beheld. "The waves impede her flight. She earnest prays "Her sister-nymphs ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid

... He would espy some shadow moving behind the veil. A tinkling sound would come to his car from afar, and would set him dreaming of the ankles whose tiny golden bells sang at each step. Ah, the rosy red tender feet that walked the dust of the earth like God's mercy on the fallen! ...
— The Hungry Stones And Other Stories • Rabindranath Tagore

... of the hawk, sweeping higher and higher in circles, as he surveys far and wide the expanse of fields and meadows below, in which he hopes to espy his prey. Our paper would be too long were we to say even a little about the roosting, the swimming, or running, the migration, the habits and instincts, the varied notes and pleasant songs, of the endless species ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various

... was seen at Broad-Chalk in Wiltshire, on the first day of May, 1647. It continued from about eleven o'clock (or before) till twelve. It was a very clear day; but few did take notice of it, because it was so near the sun-beams. My mother happened to espy it, going to see what o'clock it was by an horizontal dial; and then all the servants saw it. Upon the like occasion, Mr. J. Sloper, B.D. vicar there, saw it, and all his family; and the servants of Sir George Vaughan, (then of Falston) who were hunting on the downs, ...
— Miscellanies upon Various Subjects • John Aubrey

... We espy at last the long-sought oasis. Beyond a hill, on a still higher one, some slated roofs peep from clusters of foliage as brightly green as a salad. The village is there, and our looks embrace it, but we are not there yet. For a long time it seems to ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse

... a mountain's highest ridge, Where oft the stormy winter gale Cuts like a scythe, while through the clouds It sweeps from vale to vale; Not five yards from the mountain-path, This thorn you on your left espy; And to the left, three yards beyond, You see a little muddy pond Of water, never dry; I've measured it from side to side: 'Tis three feet long, and ...
— Lyrical Ballads, With Other Poems, 1800, Vol. I. • William Wordsworth

... euery morne, For feare that Titan should her fault espy, And blushes so did Hirens cheekes adorne, Fearing least Mahomet perceiu'd her eye. Louers are blind, and what could he espy. No, twas the hidden vertue of that kisse, That her chast lips were nere vs'd to beforne, That did vnframe her, ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale

... eye, too, / who before did hear That till then was never / aught beheld so fair, As those two royal ladies: / they found it was no lie. In all their person might ye / no manner of deceit espy. ...
— The Nibelungenlied - Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original • trans. by George Henry Needler

... Buk'at Nisrin. Moreover, when thou see me approach thee make thy many prepare for mimic onset as they were my adversaries and offer me sham fight; for that messengers from Pharaoh, King of Egypt, have been sent to espy the strength of our armies. Accordingly, let them stand in fear of us, for that they be our foes and our haters." Presently, sealing this epistle, he sent it to Haykar by one of the royal pages and himself carrying the other letters he had addressed ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... The occurrence pleased him. He crawled out of the clump on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down the ditch of the hedge to the wood. He did not lay it right down to the wood lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it. Then he returned with fine, red Indian caution to Erebus. ...
— The Terrible Twins • Edgar Jepson

... saw a boy with eager eye Open a book upon a stall, And read as he'd devour it all: Which when the stall-man did espy, Soon to the boy I heard him call, "You, Sir, you never buy a book, Therefore in one you shall not look." The boy pass'd slowly on, and with a sigh He wish'd he never had been taught to read, Then of the old churl's books he should have had ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... stood by the kitchen-table, patting up another barm-cake. She had a hand even lighter than Dinah's with flour and pastry. . . . The two captains had moved on to the gate of Home Parc, and she could still espy them past the edge of the window. She saw Captain Hunken draw his hand horizontally with a slow explanatory gesture and then drop it abruptly at ...
— Hocken and Hunken • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... to Arcady, Where all the cows are purple? Ah, woe is me! I never hope On such a sight my eyes to ope; But, as I sing in merry glee Along the road to Arcady, Perchance full soon I may espy A Purple Cow come dancing by. Heigho! I then shall see one. Her horns bedecked with ribbons gay, And garlanded with rosy may,— A tricksy sight. Still I must say I'd rather see ...
— The Re-echo Club • Carolyn Wells

... unwarlike Algeria was drunk and knew it, as did two of his very fine friends who announced that as there was no train he should have a good sleep at a farmhouse hard by, which farmhouse one of them claimed to espy through the impenetrable night. The drunk was accordingly escorted into the dark, his friends' abrupt steps correcting his own large slovenly procedure out of earshot.... Some of the Black People sat down near me and smoked. Their enormous faces, ...
— The Enormous Room • Edward Estlin Cummings

... Croker's Boswell, p. 837. The account given by Paoli to Miss Burney, shows that very early in life Boswell took out his tablets:—'He came to my country, and he fetched me some letter of recommending him; but I was of the belief he might be an impostor, and I supposed in my minde he was an espy; for I look away from him, and in a moment I look to him again, and I behold his tablets. Oh! he was to the work of writing down all I say. Indeed I was angry. But soon I discover he was no impostor and no espy; and I only find I was myself the ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... another, which was lost in the same way; and returning to the lodge to replenish his quiver, he happened to espy one of the lucky arrows, which the first Weendigo had given to his father, hanging upon the side of the lodge. He reached up, and having secured it, he shot it out at the opening, and immediately running ...
— The Indian Fairy Book - From the Original Legends • Cornelius Mathews

... were jumping the rope, while papa and mamma swung it for them. Pretty little things, with their flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, how they did seem to enjoy themselves! What parent was ever far from home that did not espy in every group of children his own little ones—his Mary or his Nelly, his Henry or Charlie? So it was with me. There was a ring of twenty or thirty singing and dancing, with a smaller ring in the centre, while old folks and ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... sickness add more feebleness Unto your weaken'd age; but give me leave To cure thy vain suspicious malady. Thy eyes shall witness how thou art deceiv'd, Misprizing thy fair lady's chastity: For whilst we two stand closely here unseen, We shall espy them presently approach. ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various

... remained at Delft, waiting, by direction of the States, for an answer to his propositions, and doing his best according to the instructions of his own Government to espy the condition and sentiments of the enemy. Becoming anxious after the lapse of a fortnight, he wrote to Barneveld. In reply the Advocate twice sent a secret messenger, urging, him to be patient, assuring him that the affair was ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... thou should kiss me, love, Wha could espy thee? If thou wad be my love, Jamie, come try me! Jamie, come try ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... and Grettir brake it open, and was rough-handed enough thereat, and did not leave off till he came to the rafters, and by then the day was spent; then he tore away the rafters, and now Audun prayed him hard not to go into the barrow; Grettir bade him guard the rope, "but I shall espy what dwells within here." ...
— The Story of Grettir The Strong • Translated by Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris

... tears stand in poor Hepzibah's eyes, or overflow them with a too abundant gush, so that she was fain to betake herself into some corner, lest Clifford should espy her agitation. Indeed, all the enjoyments of this period were provocative of tears. Coming so late as it did, it was a kind of Indian summer, with a mist in its balmiest sunshine, and decay and death in its gaudiest delight. The more Clifford ...
— The House of the Seven Gables • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... grain to some one distant spot, and rendering it there perfectly useless. Sometimes he would find that he held a handful of mere husks, and then if, in the bitterness of his soul, he began to curse and tear his hair—he would all at once espy in those very husks— eyes that fleered at him, whilst a horrible laughter ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 • Various

... my lambs, lying in a stranger's arms! A careless shepherd I! I must have been asleep or dreaming ... dreaming foolish dreams about that cottage, on which the sun might shine unheeded now, I cared not for it, being full of other thoughts. No sooner did I espy the brand on the lamb than I rose to my feet, and, even as I ran nimbly down the slope towards the stranger, my eyes roamed over the hillside to discover which of my lambs had strayed:—Rosamond, Cowslip, Eglantine and Gillyflower—I ...
— A Book of Quaker Saints • Lucy Violet Hodgkin

... me heretical? who dares call me rabbi? who dares call me Scotus? Spider! spider! yea, thou hast one corner left; I espy thee, and my broom ...
— Citation and Examination of William Shakspeare • Walter Savage Landor

... buccaneers when not upon the wave, Braziliano and his companions put to sea again, directing their course to his old haunts about Campeachy. Shortly after his arrival, while looking into the port, in a small boat, to espy what ships were offering for prizes, he was captured and thrown into prison. The Spanish authorities determined upon his execution; but in consequence of an admonition that terrible vengeance would be inflicted upon all Spanish prisoners ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol III, Issue VI, June, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... home at the Roost, the stout Jacob was not idle; but was prone to carry on a petty warfare of his own, for his private recreation and refreshment. Did he ever chance to espy, from his look-out place, a hostile ship or galley anchored or becalmed near shore, he would take down his long goose-gun from the hooks over the fire-place, sally out alone, and lurk along shore, dodging behind rocks and trees, and ...
— Wolfert's Roost and Miscellanies • Washington Irving

... Britain and France, this folk has left its indelible mark upon the countryside in a wealth of place-names embodying its characteristic titles for flood, village, and hill. In such prefixes and terminations as magh, brig, dun, and etc we espy the influence of Celtic occupants, and Maguntiacum, or Mainz, and Borbetomagus, or Worms, are examples of that 'Gallic' idiom which has indelibly starred the ...
— Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine • Lewis Spence

... hours, when mounting both their Horses, I took mine, and un-espy'd did dogg e'm to the City, And where they Hous'd I know not; for they enter'd Remote from Home, and I ...
— The Fatal Jealousie (1673) • Henry Nevil Payne

... of contempt but it deserves observation, that malignity takes hold only of his writings, and that his life passed without reproach, even when his boldness of reprehension naturally turned upon him many eyes desirous to espy faults which many tongues would have made haste to publish. But those who could not blame, could, at least, forbear to praise, and therefore of his private life and domestic ...
— Lives of the English Poets: Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Pope • Samuel Johnson

... virtue and learning be of more excellency than that I am able to praise them. And whiles I was abiding at Antwerp, oftentimes among other did visit me one Peter Gyles, a citizen thereof, whom one day I chanced to espy talking with a stranger, with whom he brought me to speech. Which Raphael Hythloday had voyaged with Master Amerigo Vespucci, but parting from him had seen many lands, and so returned home by way of ...
— The World's Greatest Books—Volume 14—Philosophy and Economics • Various

... Cordatus. Sound ho! and begin. I leave you two, as censors, to sit here: Observe what I present, and liberally Speak your opinions upon every scene, As it shall pass the view of these spectators. Nay, now y'are tedious, sirs; for shame begin. And, Mitis, note me; if in all this front You can espy a gallant of this mark, Who, to be thought one of the judicious, Sits with his arms thus wreath'd, his hat pull'd here, Cries mew, and nods, then shakes his empty head, Will shew more several motions in his face Than the new London, Rome, or Niniveh, And, now and then, breaks a dry biscuit jest, ...
— Every Man Out Of His Humour • Ben Jonson

... respectability. Through love, he passed from an artisan to an artist. His reverence for the inner reality, the book itself, in itself beyond time and decay, had roused in him a child-like regard for its body, for its broken inclosure and default of manifestation. He would espy the beauty of an old binding through any amount of abrasion and laceration. To his eyes almost any old binding was better for its book than ...
— There & Back • George MacDonald

... the intermingling of saturated portions of air, at different temperatures, must necessarily be attended by precipitation of moisture. This idea was advanced by Doctor Hutton, and considered competent to account for the prominent meteorological phenomena, until Professor Espy broached a questionable principle, (and which is rendered still more so by the late investigations of Regnault,) in opposition to Hutton's theory. That the theory is deficient, no one can gainsay. That Espy has rendered the question clearer, is equally ...
— Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms - Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence • T. Bassnett

... forsaken by his companion and being unable to follow him, he looked around him to see where he might hide, and could espy nothing save a pigsty, to which he dragged himself as well as he could. And as he opened the door to hide himself within, out rushed two huge pigs, whose place the unhappy Friar took, closing the little door upon himself, and hoping that, when he heard the sound of passers-by, he would ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. IV. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre

... chanced to espy the mouth of a cavern, within which (though it was bright noon everywhere else) there would have been only a dusky twilight: but it so happened that a torch was burning there. It flickered and struggled ...
— The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10) • Various

... was a page, a little fause page, Lord Ronald did espy, An' he has told his baron all, Where the hind and hart did lie. "It is na for thee, but thine, Lord Ronald, Thy father's deeds o' weir; But since the hind has come to my faul', His blood shall ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... she went, until she could espy The wan, grey river lap the leaden bank Wherefrom there sprouted sparsely sedges rank, And there the road had end in that sad boat Wherein the dead men unto Minos float; There stood the ferryman, who now, ...
— The Earthly Paradise - A Poem • William Morris

... now see him more distinctly, and he was truly a pitiable object, with his ragged black coat and trousers, through the rents in which you could espy his scraggy limbs. Underneath a black cloth cap, which was drawn low over his brows, as though he were afraid of being recognised, could be seen two large brown eyes, gleaming with peculiar softness in his ...
— The Fat and the Thin • Emile Zola

... horn and said: "It seemeth that Fox had a deeming of the way the Romans should come; so now we abided in the thicket without that glade and lay quiet and hidden, spreading ourselves as much about that lawn of the oak-trees as we might, the while Fox and three others crept through the wood to espy what might be toward: not long had they been gone ere we heard a war-horn blow, and it was none of our horns: it was a long way off, but we looked to our weapons: for men are eager for the foe and the death that cometh, when they lie hidden in the thicket. A while passed, and again we heard ...
— The House of the Wolfings - A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse • William Morris

... came, his blood was already poisoned; his very being was eaten into by doubt, and almost to the very end of his days Turgenef remained a fatalistic sceptic, a godless pessimist; not till his old age did he espy the promised land. It was only when he witnessed with his own eyes the boundless self-sacrifice of the revolutionists, when the old man was moved by the heroism of the young Sophie Bardine even to the kissing of the very sheet upon which the girl's burning words to her judges were ...
— Lectures on Russian Literature - Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy • Ivan Panin

... the foreigner?" said he at length, and glowered the more into the interior as if he might espy him. ...
— Doom Castle • Neil Munro

... is perhaps an exaggeration to say that Maury alone laid the foundation for our present Weather Bureau, he certainly shares with Professors Redfield, Espy, Loomis, Joseph Henry, Dr. Increase Lapham, and others, the honor of having been one of the first to suggest the feasibility of our ...
— American Adventures - A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' • Julian Street

... be a mortal ear My sorrowful complaint to hear; If manly breast is ever stirred By wrong done to a helpless bird, To them for quick redress I cry." Moved by the tale, and drawing nigh, On alder branch thou didst espy How, sitting lonely and forlorn, His breast was pressed upon a thorn, Unknowing that he leant thereon; Then bidding him take heart again, Thou rannest down into the lane To seek the doer of this wrong, Nor under hedgerow ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 1 July 1848 • Various

... Stake, That Man may God his Maker make; The other smiles at his Religion, And vows he's but a learned Widgeon: And when they have empty'd all their Stoar From Books or Fathers, are not more Convinc'd or wiser than before. Scarce had we finish'd serious Story, But I espy'd the Town before me, And roaring Planters on the ground, Drinking of Healths in Circle round: Dismounting Steed with friendly Guide, Our Horses to a Tree we ty'd, And forwards pass'd among the Rout, To chuse convenient ...
— The Sot-weed Factor: or, A Voyage to Maryland • Ebenezer Cook

... well as himself, his curiosity drew him unconsciously farther off than he intended to go. At last, having seen the Parsee carnival wind away in the distance, he was turning his steps towards the station, when he happened to espy the splendid pagoda on Malabar Hill, and was seized with an irresistible desire to see its interior. He was quite ignorant that it is forbidden to Christians to enter certain Indian temples, and that even the faithful must not go in without first leaving their ...
— Around the World in 80 Days • Jules Verne

... ask, Why travel back along the chain of causation to discover God? What is gained by travelling along an infinite series, and saying suddenly, "At this point I espy God." Confessedly we may trace back phenomena as far as we will without finding ourselves a step nearer a commencement. All we get is a transformation of pre-existing material into new forms. Consequently all the evidence that exists at the ...
— Theism or Atheism - The Great Alternative • Chapman Cohen

... duke his men fast flying did espy, And thither ran, and thus, displeased, spake, "What fear is this? Oh, whither do you fly? See who they be that this pursuit do make, A heartless band, that dare no battle try, Who wounds before ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... smoke below me drifted, so that I could just espy, as in a frame of cloud, a little spot on the deck of the Rata, where stood a man. He was tall like a giant. The tawny hair waved carelessly in the wind. He carried no weapon, but leaned with both hands heavily on the rail, like a man wounded, and his face, when he turned ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed

... inception of Tragedy and Comedy, were known long before the Greeks knew them. (Dionysus was the patron and protector of theatres.) "The purport of the song was that Bacchus imparted his secret of the cultivation of vines to a petty prince in Attica, named Icarius, who happened one day to espy a goat brouzing upon his plantations, immediately seized, and offered it up as a sacrifice to his divine benefactor; the peasants assembled round their master, assisted in the ceremony, and expressed their joy ...
— A History of Pantomime • R. J. Broadbent

... guide to the Isle of Pearls, situated about five-and-twenty leagues from Panama itself, and in the direct line of sailing to the city. We accepted his offer gladly, and the fellow led us to a snug anchorage whence we could espy our prey and make ready to sally forth ...
— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan

... Sometimes he delivers his intermittent aria from a low bush or even from the ground, but his favorite song-perches are the branches of saplings and trees just below the zone of foliage. Here, in the shadows, you may be compelled to look for him for some time before you espy his trig little form, and even then you are likely to see him because he flits to another perch rather than because you first catch the glint of his colors. Whether he means it or not, he is something of a ventriloquist, for which reason you will often ...
— Our Bird Comrades • Leander S. (Leander Sylvester) Keyser

... thou longest to espy Near ocean's marge the place where he doth lie. Gaze without fear. But when the traveller stern, Who from this roof is parted, shall return, Advancing still as I the signal give, To serve each moment's mission ...
— The Seven Plays in English Verse • Sophocles

... charge! On, Stanley, on!" Were the last words of Marmion. Were I in gallant Stanley's place, When Marmion urged him to the chase, A word you then would all espy, That brings a tear to ...
— Storyology - Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore • Benjamin Taylor

... don't espy our man at table," Captain Jack went on, "we'll have to try other means of finding him out. You two will know what to do when you're on the ground. If Millard is anywhere in the village that you go to look through, don't ...
— The Submarine Boys for the Flag - Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam • Victor G. Durham

... may be mentioned a plan {133} proposed by Mr. Espy of the United States of America, for remedying them by means of artificial rains. That gentleman says, that if a large body of heated air be made to ascend in a column, a large cloud will be generated, and that such cloud ...
— The Rain Cloud - or, An Account of the Nature, Properties, Dangers and Uses of Rain • Anonymous

... she turn aside? Will she espy the dark form in the deep shade of the orange, and, with one piercing scream, wheel and vanish? She draws near. She approaches the jasmine; she raises her arms, the sleeves falling like a vapor down to the shoulders; rises upon tiptoe, and plucks a spray. O Memory! Can it ...
— Old Creole Days • George Washington Cable

... in life it is done, it is done, My warfare, my friends, it is done; I go to that Spirit, whose form in the sky, So oft we have seen in the cloud-garnished sun, So oft in dread lightning espy. ...
— The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... Dobest from them both? Then Thought in that time said these wordes; 'Whether Dowell, Dobet, and Dobest be in land, Here is well would wit, if Wit could teach him, And whether he be man or woman, this man fain would espy, And work as they three would, this is his intent.' 'Here Dowell dwelleth,' quod Wit, 'not a day hence, In a castle that kind[31] made, of four kinds things; Of earth and air is it made, mingled together With wind and with water, witterly[32] enjoined; Kinde hath closed therein, craftily withal, ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... with all this seeming inattention, he was vigilantly watched, yet could he not forbear from walking to the entrance, looking around at the same time, if, by chance, he might espy a weapon. He saw none, however, and two stout Indians made motions to him to return. Meditating on his situation, and casting about in his mind for expedients, either to evade his captors or to change the resolution of the Pequot chief, which, he doubted not, aimed at his life, he ...
— The Knight of the Golden Melice - A Historical Romance • John Turvill Adams

... sand, how it glistened on the sunny summer day! And how the waves would chase us back, as if they were in play! And when, on the horizon blue, a sail we would espy, How "Ship ahoy!" or "Whither bound?" we all of us ...
— The Nursery, No. 106, October, 1875. Vol. XVIII. - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers • Various

... town by daylight. For safety he endeavored to hide his freight by having them all lie flat down on the bottom of the skiff; covered them with blankets, concealing them from the effulgent beams of the early morning sun, or rather from the "Christian Wolves" who might perchance espy him from the shore ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... Brasiliano, after having spent all, was forced to go to sea again to seek his fortune. He set forth towards the coast of Campechy, his common rendezvous: fifteen days after his arrival, he put himself into a canoe to espy the port of that city, and see if he could rob any Spanish vessel; but his fortune was so bad, that both he and all his men were taken and carried before the governor, who immediately cast them into a dungeon, intending to hang them every one; and doubtless he had done so, ...
— The Pirates of Panama • A. O. (Alexandre Olivier) Exquemelin

... cast forth, The Princes having so commanded me, Since in his foot he had a wasting sore, And would not let us sacrifice or pour Libations undisturbed, but filled the camp With lamentations wild and blasphemous, Yelling in agony. Yet why dilate, On what has happened? We will stint our words; He may espy my presence, and my plan Of capturing him be ruined utterly. Now must thy part be done; look round and see Where is a rocky cave with double mouth, So formed that in the winter twice the sun Falls on the sitter, and in summer time The breeze ...
— Specimens of Greek Tragedy - Aeschylus and Sophocles • Goldwin Smith

... false to my worthy lords even in thought, so by that merit shall I now have the pleasure of beholding thee vanquished and dragged by the sons of Pritha. Thou canst not, cruel as thou art, frighten me by seizing me with violence, for as soon as those Kuru warriors will espy me they will bring me back to the ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 2 • Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... a countenance through the assumed gravity of which I could espy his wicked, infernal ...
— The Shame of Motley • Raphael Sabatini

... round tables, low, chair-surrounded, each laden with a due complement of plates, glasses, victuals, and so on, and each capable of accommodating three or four couples at a time. To one of these, if you are wise, and have the luck to espy any vacant chairs, you will surely—I am of course addressing my male readers—lead your partner. I assume that, with an experienced eye to this very thing, you have purposely contrived to engage one with whom you specially enjoy, or think it likely that you will enjoy, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 • Various

... from one of his fortresses, could espy the position of his fellow-countrymen, moored on an open beach beyond reach of any city, and forced to send for supplies to Sestos, which was nearly two miles distant, while their enemies were safely lodged ...
— Hellenica • Xenophon

... shalt espy That darken'd on thy closing eye, When the footstep thou shalt hear That ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... window not far from the hotel, I was fortunate enough to espy a young girl seated in a sewing shop. She is decidedly pretty and not altogether unaware of the fact, though still a child. We have entered upon an elaborate, classical flirtation. With all the artfulness of her years she is using me to practise on, as a dummy, ...
— Alone • Norman Douglas

... we could hear the rustling sound of the leaves, as the rogue, as we supposed, moved his head or perhaps only his ears among them. I held my breath. There were no tall trees near behind which we could run should he espy us. Our only chance of safety was in bringing him down by a shot. We were well to windward of him, and he had not yet discovered us. We all stopped, holding our breath, with our rifles cocked, ready to fire. We were not a dozen yards from him, but so thick was the jungle ...
— My First Voyage to Southern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston



Words linked to "Espy" :   espial, spy



Copyright © 2024 e-Free Translation.com