spy out


verb(tr, adverb)
  1. to discover by careful observation: to spy out a route

  2. to make a close scrutiny of: to spy out the land

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use spy out in a sentence

  • Valence sent a woman, disguised as a beggar, to spy out the position; but Bruce saw through the dodge, and the spy confessed.

    King Robert the Bruce | A. F. Murison
  • To spy out the land with a naval telescope over a mile of sea means taking a lot on trust as we learned to our cost on April 25th.

  • She was to join him a week later, after he had had time to spy out the land and make his nefarious schemes for a mock marriage.

    Jaffery | William J. Locke
  • Why, to keep one's eyes of either side 's nose, that what a man can not smell out, he may spy out.

  • One day he started with a few men to spy out the position of his Indian foes.