Forms: 4–7 espie, -ye, 5– espy. Also ASPY. [a. OF. espie-r (mod.F. épier), corresp. to Pr. and Sp. espiar, It. spiare:—Com. Romanic *spiāre, ad. OHG. spehôn (Ger. spähen) to SPY. Cf. L. specĕre, Gr. σκέπτεσθαι to look.]
† 1. trans. To act as a spy upon, to watch (a person); to inspect as a spy (sometimes with out); to examine closely. Also, to watch for, look out for. Obs.
[c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 37. Tille wikked men scho spak, Edward to aspie.]
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 105. But thicke and drie [sc. land] espie [printed espy].
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., II. (1520), 10 b/1. Brute anone sende of his men to lande for to espye the maner of the countree.
1552. Huloet, Espye or waite a time, aucupari tempus.
a. 1555. Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 304. To espy and search his land.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 48. Now question me no more, we are espied.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, Wks. (ed. Rtldg.), 154/2. Espy her loves, and who she liketh best.
1611. Bible, Josh. xiv. 7. Moses the seruant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea, to espie out the land.
1654. Jer. Taylor, 28 Serm., iii. 30 (Ogilvie). He sends Angels to espie us in all our wayes.
b. absol. or intr. To look steadily, watch, keep a look out; to act as a spy. arch.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 254. With that word Arcite gan espye Wher as this lady romed to and fro.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. iii. 134. Evander … espying wyth his sicht.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Episcopius, a brigantine or ship sent out to espie.
1611. Bible, Jer. xlviii. 19. Stand by the way and espie.
1846. Keble, Lyra Innoc. (1873), 42. [He] on the dark edge stands … and downward dares espy.
† c. (trans. In ME. form ASPY: To lie in wait for; also absol.)
c. 1225. Ancr. R., 196. I ðe wildernesse heo aspieden us to slean.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xxiii. 21. More than fourty men of hem aspien him [Vulg. insidiantur ei].
2. trans. To discover by spying or by looking out; to catch sight of; to descry, discern, discover (what is distant or partly hidden); to detect (a fault, flaw, etc.); to discern (a convenient time or opportunity). † Formerly sometimes with out. † Also, to discern from.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 1796. Yif thou dost a folie, Thi louerd hit wil sone espie.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, II. 198. [It were impossible] How that … he [Fame] shulde here al this Or they [his spies] espie hyt.
c. 1460. La Belle Dame sanz mercy, 83, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 55. But tweyne þat were my frendis here before had me espied.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, D ij. She [the hawk] espith theym and commyth couerte her selfe.
1531. Elyot, Gov., I. xiii. 51 b. He sone espiethe good herbes from nettiles.
1543–4. Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 5. A time may be espied to haue them … by malice conuicted.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 462. Whose prophane blasphemy some meary conceipted man espyeng out, opened the Caskett priuily.
1666. Bunyan, Grace Ab., 24. If I could in any place espy a word of promise.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, I. i. (1787) 21. The Seamen espied [1726 spied] a rock within half a cable’s length of the ship.
1788. Wesley, Wks. (1872), VI. 375. These skilful wrestlers espy the smallest slip we make.
1817. Coleridge, Sibyl. Leaves (1862), 280. Can she the bodiless dead espy?
1847. L. Hunt, Jar Honey, ix. (1848), 125.
| We all, like Moses, should espy, | |
| Ev’n in a bush, the radiant Deity. |
1877. Black, Green Past., xliii. Who was trying to espy a squirrel.
b. To perceive by chance or unexpectedly.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 373/3. A man came for to take water & espyed the deed chylde.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (Arb.), 29. I chaunced to espye this foresayde Peter.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 194. Where I espy’d the panther fast asleep.
1611. Bible, Gen. xlii. 27. As one of them opened his sacke, to giue his asse prouender in the Inne, he espied his money.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 196. Espying me, hee blest himselfe and suddenly began to mutter his prayer to Mahomet with feruent ardencie.
† c. To observe, perceive (a fact); with clause as obj. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 67. Creon gan espie how that the blode riall was brought adoun.
1413. Lydg., Pilgr. Sowle, IV. xx. (1483), 66. Seem … hyled his fader Noe When he espyed that naked soo was he.
1461. Paston Lett., No. 399, II. 24. I can espye some of his meny was grete cause of T. D. deth.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 129. Yf … they espye in the soule … ony feare to ryse.
1551. T. Wilson, Logike, II. 73 b. The hontesman … will sone espie, when he seeth a hole, whether it be a foxe borough or not.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 463. [A supposed ‘portion of Peters Brayne’] … afterwardes being more narrowlye examined and vewed, was espyed to be a very pumeyse.
