All 21 Uses of
discern
in
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- The May-Day dance, for instance, was to be discerned on the afternoon under notice, in the guise of the club revel, or "club-walking," as it was there called.†
Chpt 1
- Of the rushing couples there could barely be discerned more than the high lights—the indistinctness shaping them to satyrs clasping nymphs—a multiplicity of Pans whirling a multiplicity of Syrinxes; Lotis attempting to elude Priapus, and always failing.†
Chpt 1
- An inner cloud of dust rose around the prostrate figures amid the general one of the room, in which a twitching entanglement of arms and legs was discernible.†
Chpt 1 *
- Not so very far to the left of her she could discern a dark patch in the scenery, which inquiry confirmed her in supposing to be trees marking the environs of Kingsbere—in the church of which parish the bones of her ancestors—her useless ancestors—lay entombed.†
Chpt 3
- But no explanation was discernible; he remained under the cow long enough to have milked three, uttering a private ejaculation now and then, as if he could not get on.†
Chpt 3
- At the further end the great churn could be seen revolving, and its slip-slopping heard—the moving power being discernible through the window in the form of a spiritless horse walking in a circle and driven by a boy.†
Chpt 3
- And then he seemed to discern in her something that was familiar, something which carried him back into a joyous and unforeseeing past, before the necessity of taking thought had made the heavens gray.†
Chpt 3
- As they crept along, stooping low to discern the plant, a soft yellow gleam was reflected from the buttercups into their shaded faces, giving them an elfish, moonlit aspect, though the sun was pouring upon their backs in all the strength of noon.†
Chpt 3
- She then became conscious that he was observing her; but she would not show it by any change of position, though the curious dream-like fixity disappeared, and a close eye might easily have discerned that the rosiness of her face deepened, and then faded till only a tinge of it was left.†
Chpt 3
- The carpet reached close to the sill, and under the edge of the carpet she discerned the faint white margin of the envelope containing her letter to him, which he obviously had never seen, owing to her having in her haste thrust it beneath the carpet as well as beneath the door.†
Chpt 4
- When they reached the door Tess femininely glanced back to discern the effect of that kiss of charity; there was no triumph in her glance, as there might have been.†
Chpt 4
- He waited in expectancy to discern some mental pointing; he knew that if any intention of his, concluded over-night, did not vanish in the light of morning, it stood on a basis approximating to one of pure reason, even if initiated by impulse of feeling; that it was so far, therefore, to be trusted.†
Chpt 5
- Southerly, at many miles' distance, and over the hills and ridges coastward, she could discern a surface like polished steel: it was the English Channel at a point far out towards France.†
Chpt 5
- He had obviously not discerned her yet in her position against the sun.†
Chpt 6
- As soon as she could discern the outline of the house—newly thatched with her money—it had all its old effect upon Tess's imagination.†
Chpt 6
- However, all the mutations so increasingly discernible in village life did not originate entirely in the agricultural unrest.†
Chpt 6
- In the shades of the wet road she soon discerned her mother with tall 'Liza-Lu and Abraham.†
Chpt 6
- It was called the d'Urberville Window, and in the upper part could be discerned heraldic emblems like those on Durbeyfield's old seal and spoon.†
Chpt 6
- By the midnight lamps he went up and down the winding way of this new world in an old one, and could discern between the trees and against the stars the lofty roofs, chimneys, gazebos, and towers of the numerous fanciful residences of which the place was composed.†
Chpt 7
- Worn and unhandsome as he had become, it was plain that she did not discern the least fault in his appearance.†
Chpt 7
- The dawn shone full on the front of the man westward, and Clare could discern from this that he was tall, and walked as if trained.†
Chpt 7
Definition:
-
(discern) to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious