Hypertext Webster Gateway: "discern"

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) 1.7 (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},
{recognise}, {distinguish}, {pick out}, {make out}, {tell
apart}]


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