All 3 Uses of
discern
in
Gulliver's Travels
- He was amazed at the continual noise it made, and the motion of the minute-hand, which he could easily discern; for their sight is much more acute than ours: he asked the opinions of his learned men about it, which were various and remote, as the reader may well imagine without my repeating; although indeed I could not very perfectly understand them.†
Chpt 1discern = notice or understand something
- They saw the ships move forward in a large half-moon, but could not discern me, who was up to my breast in water.†
Chpt 1 *
- I saw him try both experiments upon a dog, but could not discern any effect from the former.†
Chpt 3
Definition:
to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious