- [intransitive] to collect secret information about another country, organization or person从事间谍活动;搜集情报
- He spied for his government for more than ten years.他做过十多年的政府间谍。
Topics War and conflictc1 - [transitive] spy somebody/something (literary or formal) to suddenly see or notice somebody/something突然看见;发现
- In the distance we spied the Pacific for the first time.在远处,我们突然第一次看到了太平洋。
Word OriginMiddle English: shortening of Old French espie ‘espying’, espier ‘espy’, of Germanic origin, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin specere ‘behold, look’.
Idioms - to collect information before deciding what to do(事先)摸清情况,窥察虚实