All 13 Uses
discern
in
The Mayor of Casterbridge
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- They walked side by side in such a way as to suggest afar off the low, easy, confidential chat of people full of reciprocity; but on closer view it could be discerned that the man was reading, or pretending to read, a ballad sheet which he kept before his eyes with some difficulty by the hand that was passed through the basket strap.†
Chpt 1discerned = noticed something that is not obvious
- Among the odds and ends he discerned a little shining object, and picked it up.†
Chpt 2
- In a few moments he could discern a female figure creeping in by the great north gap, or public gateway.
Chpt 11 *discern = see something that is not obvious
- The flowers which smelt so sweetly were not discernible; and they passed through them into the house.†
Chpt 12discernible = possible to notice or understand
- Her quiet eye discerned that Henchard's tigerish affection for the younger man, his constant liking to have Farfrae near him, now and then resulted in a tendency to domineer, which, however, was checked in a moment when Donald exhibited marks of real offence.†
Chpt 14discerned = noticed something that is not obvious
- A number of people had heroically gathered in the field but by three o'clock Henchard discerned that his project was doomed to end in failure.†
Chpt 16
- Originally the mask had exhibited a comic leer, as could still be discerned; but generations of Casterbridge boys had thrown stones at the mask, aiming at its open mouth; and the blows thereon had chipped off the lips and jaws as if they had been eaten away by disease.†
Chpt 21
- But Elizabeth-Jane clung so closely to her nook that she discerned nothing of this.†
Chpt 21
- But Henchard was constructed upon too large a scale to discern such minutiae as these by an evening light, which to him were as the notes of an insect that lie above the compass of the human ear.†
Chpt 26discern = notice or understand something
- He could hardly discern her till, glancing inquiringly, he said, "What—Miss Henchard—and are ye up so airly?"†
Chpt 34
- At the same time Farfrae discerned his late antagonist.†
Chpt 40discerned = noticed something that is not obvious
- On her return, after some delay, she told him that she saw something floating round and round there; but what it was she could not discern.†
Chpt 41discern = notice or understand something
- The pair were not dancing together, but Henchard could discern that whenever the chances of the figure made them the partners of a moment their emotions breathed a much subtler essence than at other times.†
Chpt 44
Definitions:
-
(1)
(discern) to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)