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}.