Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To see or predict the future by means of a crystal ball.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To descry. Also skry.
- To cry out.
- To proclaim; announce publicly or by way of advertisement: as, to scry a sale.
- n. A cry.
- n. A flock of wild fowl.
- To divine, or to attempt divination, by crystal-gazing; induce hypnagogic illusions by gazing into a glass or crystal sphere or some equivalent medium.
Wiktionary
- v. To predict the future using crystal balls.
- n. obsolete A cry or shout.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To descry.
- n. A flock of wild fowl.
- n. obsolete A cry or shout.
WordNet 3.0
- v. divine by gazing into crystals
Etymologies
- Middle English ascrie (Wiktionary)
- Short for descry. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Dee was haunted by his shortcomings: "You know I cannot see, nor scry" he lamented.”
The Guardian: Dr Dee, Palace Theatre, Manchester | First night review
“The Savant (aka nobody knows his identity) - cybernetic mathematical supergenius who can scry into the futures of many possible timelines.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » CarsonArtist’s Review Forum
“Annika had already warped past aneurismal straight into action, dispatching search parties and hiring witches to scry.”
Simon & Schuster: Kresley Cole Immortals After Dark: The Clan MacRieve
“Rydstrom told Sabine, “Cwena, the witch will scry for Lanthe—””
“Perhaps she was using the surface of the water to scry into her future.”
“Who has that crystal ball s/he can scry and come up with the certainty that it's okay to torture this one because we are *sure.”
“This was the place he had seen that time he'd tried to scry in the forest pool, the hilltop covered with warring Demons.”
“Perhaps tomorrow she would scry as well, but she had been afraid to do that for fear of what her spell would show her.”
“THE morning she had made-up her mind to scry, Idalia awoke, as always these days, to the drumming of the steadily falling rain and the distant music of Elven rain-chimes.”
“In an emergency, a Wildmage could scry in a simple bowl of water, but the most power-and the best results-came from using natural pools, and today Idalia wanted all the help she could get.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scry’.
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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scraps
scray, scramble, scraggly, scrape, scree, scrap, scrape by, scratch, scratch out, scratch race, scratch up, scranny and 61 more...
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Surprising four-letter words
I imagine most of these will be Anglo-Saxon, not likely to crop up in the average day's conversation, and thus excellent for Scrabble. ("most" is too common, likewise "will" and even "crop", in an...
blet, quim, clit, buff, sire, wiki, blog, loam, waft, heft, mare, lilt and 68 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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deidionysus's list
Words, words, words!
cartesian, shavian, dithyramb, dreadnaught, lea, adamantine, titanomachy, theomachy, aethereal, ambrosia, ambrosial, aether and 183 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Umbersorrow
Intangible, anthropic.
States of being are listed on oofy.njiju, glark, deplore, afterlithe, tagmass, spuriosity, forkful, chelation, oding, ploat, botnet, quedeship and 477 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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roseandivy's list
mooncalf, wonted, gibbet, artless, noontide, blithe, glitterati, vorpal, soporific, moxie, pilfer, betwixt and between and 263 more...
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use•ful
palmary, glossolalia, bothum, high-proof, synesthesia, odious, autochthonous, yawp, mordacious, dynamo, dishevel, titely and 414 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scry.

yarb What a hopeless dictionary. I feel for you. Nov 21, 2007
abiohphobia I once lost a game of scrabble because this word was not in the dictionary we had on hand. And it was a nice big thick one too. Oct 24, 2007