Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of spy.
  • noun espionage

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of keeping a secret watch for intelligence purposes
  • noun the act of detecting something; catching sight of something
  • noun keeping a secret or furtive watch

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • And now, sir, you are spying upon me, -- _spying_, I say, -- and it only confirms what I said of you before. "

    From the Ranks Charles King 1888

  • Do you now understand what you called my spying in Paris?

    Modeste Mignon 2007

  • True, no one involved had ever come right out and used the word spying, but how else to describe this assignment?

    TO STORM HEAVEN ESTHER FRIESNER 1990

  • Only later will HMG realise its usefulness in spying on our web activity.

    How Much More? Dungeekin 2009

  • BSNL had to put its $6 billion expansion plan on hold and delay tenders partly because the government said all telecom purchases should be reviewed; local security agencies feared some imported equipment might contain spying software.

    India Extends Quota Period for Telecom Orders to ITI R. Jai Krishna 2010

  • If Nixon had survived the "third-rate burglary" at the Watergate, how long would his enemies list have grown, and how emboldened would he have become in spying on political rivals?

    News industry's depression has spillover implications 2009

  • But he was interested in spying and military coups.

    Top North Korean Defector Has Died Evan Ramstad 2010

  • Today the House votes on a new compromise FISA Bill that will make the NSA's formerly questionable activitieslike spying on Americanslegal, and will grant conditional immunity upon the telephone companies that aided the NSA in spying on their customers.

    New Spy Law Will Provide Immunity To Wiretapping Telcos - The Consumerist 2008

  • At the end of the day, neither company is interested in spying on us.

    AT&T Mulls Watching You Surf - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • Arguing that Congress lacks this power because spying is not commerce is like arguing that Congress could not prohibit joyriding on interstate highways because joyriding, no matter how many commercial motor vehicles are run off the road, is not itself commerce.

    Balkinization 2007

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