7 uses
(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition
to notice or understand something — often something that is not obvious
- Rain, wind, and darkness filled the air; nevertheless, I dimly discerned a wall before me and a door open in it; through this door I passed with my new guide: she shut and locked it behind her.Chapter 5 (18% in)
- How fragrant was the steam of the beverage, and the scent of the toast! of which, however, I, to my dismay (for I was beginning to be hungry) discerned only a very small portion: Miss Temple discerned it too.Chapter 8 (57% in)
- How fragrant was the steam of the beverage, and the scent of the toast! of which, however, I, to my dismay (for I was beginning to be hungry) discerned only a very small portion: Miss Temple discerned it too.Chapter 8 (58% in)
- I discerned in the course of the morning that Thornfield Hall was a changed place: no longer silent as a church, it echoed every hour or two to a knock at the door, or a clang of the bell; steps, too, often traversed the hall, and new voices spoke in different keys below; a rill from the outer world was flowing through it; it had a master: for my part, I liked it better.Chapter 13 (2% in)
- "The glamour of inexperience is over your eyes," he answered; "and you see it through a charmed medium: you cannot discern that the gilding is slime and the silk draperies cobwebs; that the marble is sordid slate, and the polished woods mere refuse chips and scaly bark.Chapter 20 (71% in)
- When — how — whither, I could not yet discern; but he himself, I doubted not, would hurry me from Thornfield.Chapter 26 (93% in)
- I discerned he was now neither angry nor shocked at my audacity.Chapter 32 (64% in)
There are no more uses of "discern" in Jane Eyre.
Typical Usage
(best examples)