spy

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“
To be shot for a spy is your legitimate due just now.

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Definitions (34)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. noun An agent employed by a state to obtain secret information, especially of a military nature, concerning its potential or actual enemies.
  2. noun One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about its competitors.
  3. noun One who secretly keeps watch on another or others.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (14)

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Examples (50)

  • Often the spy was a farmer, and sometimes quite illiterate. —  Revolutionary Heroes, And Other Historical Papers
  • So the prospect of being something of a spy was appealing. —  Mary Balogh - Daring Masquerade.html
  • Perhaps you're thinking that when Lev Polutin sent you and Nicolai to kill Fetisov, he also sent a spy to make certain you did the job right, and that this spy is my source. —  F ;SF; - vol 100 issue 03 - March 2001
  • IN THE SECRET-SERVICE IN common walks of life to play the spy is an ignoble role; yet the work has to be done, and there must be men to do it. —  Last of the Great Scouts, The Life Story of William F. Cody
  • The uniformed men picked Long Tom up, stalked with him toward a high adobe wall THE PROSPECTIVE shooting of a spy is a spectacle calculated to grip the attention of every one in the vicinity. —  032 - Dust of Death
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

thief ·  traitor ·  detective ·  assassin ·  pirate ·  police ·  agent ·  servant ·  politician ·  diplomat ·  scout ·  soldier

Used in the same contextWord Family

spy:   spies ·  spied ·  spying
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English spie, from Old French espie, from espier, to watch, of Germanic origin; see spek- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English spyen, spien, by apheresis from espyen, espien, from Old French espier = Italian spiare = Middle Dutch spien, from OHG, spekōn, Middle High German spehen, German spähen = Icelandic speja, spæja, watch, observe, spy, = Latin specere, look, = Greek σκέπτεσ, σ1θαι, look, = Sanskrit √ spaç, √ paç, see. From the Teutonic root are also ult. espy, spial, espial, spion, espionage, etc.; from the L, root ult. English species, spectacle, etc.; from the Greek, skeptic, scope, etc
  2. from Middle English spy, spie, short for espie, aspye, espye (= Middle Dutch spie), from Old French espie, a spy; from the verb: see spy, v. Cf. spion.
 

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/spai/
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