Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To keep under surveillance.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive, nonstandard To keep someone or something under surveillance.
WordNet 3.0
- v. keep under surveillance
Etymologies
- Back-formation from surveillance. More at survey. (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from surveillance. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This article is daft and not just for its grating use of the non-word "surveil".”
“Avert your eyes whenever you pass a surveil-cam, keep your heads down and your faces blank, entertain no thought that could possibly play across your expressions and betray you.”
“But the announcement also sparked fresh concerns that the government may be using mobile technology to surveil its residents.”
The Washington Post: China plans to track cellphone users, sparking human rights concerns
“Not content to pursue the appropriate mission there -- surveil and strike when necessary to prevent it from again becoming Al Qaeda's haven -- he engaged in a nation-building exercise in a place with far less infrastructure for that than Iraq.”
The Huffington Post: William Bradley: Obama's Big Republican Problem (It's Not What You Think)
“Labeled a "total lone wolf" by Mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD reportedly used a confidential informant and wiretaps to surveil Pimentel for at least two years.”
The Huffington Post: Danielle C. Jefferis: The NYPD, FBI and Jose Pimentel: Something's Fishy
“ÂLabeled a "total lone wolf" by Mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD reportedly used a confidential informant and wiretaps to surveil Pimentel for at least two years.”
The Huffington Post: Danielle C. Jefferis: The NYPD, FBI and Jose Pimentel: Something's Fishy
“He believed that Anderson's source of the classified India-Pakistan papers was gay - that they must be gay lovers and he ordered aides to surveil them in the hopes of catching them in bed together.”
“When a California tween set up a camera to surveil her bedroom, she thought her sisters would be the only small time crooks passing through.”
“And Egypt's Internet shutdown also meant the government could not surveil and track digital activists”
The Huffington Post: Courtney C. Radsch: Double-Edged Sword: Social Media's Subversive Potential
“(Not just surveil, not interrogate and release, but hold indefinitely.)”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘surveil’.
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WF - list of EN back-formations
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_back-formations
aborigine, accrete, acculturate, admix, admixture, adolesce, adsorb, adulate, advect, aesthete, air-condition, anticline and 212 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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Baby Got Back-Formations
"A new word created by removing an affix from an already existing word, as vacuum clean from vacuum cleaner, or by removing what is mistakenly thought to be an affix, as pea from the earlier Englis...
resurrect, enthuse, couth, donate, emote, greed, isolate, manipulate, orate, prequel, spectate, upholster and 94 more...
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eesome
Includes any intangible conceivable independently of Hom. Sap.
depthless, overspire, unsteady, thitherward, rile, munchable, covet, pastinaceous, mirtle, slonk, tink, inerrarable and 345 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Balsamic's Words
vignette, itinerant, maladies, hagiographic, dour, ethereal, credence, solemnity, provenance, vestigial, dissonance, melancholia and 221 more...
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backformations
Inspired by the hilarious discussion of the word bant at around the five-minute mark of this video.
bant, maffick, surveil, ablute, pea, burgle, couth, liaise, reminisce, fluoresce, emote, enthuse and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for surveil.
seanahan I like this word, but I am a sucker for spy shows. Nov 13, 2007
sionnach yarb: Just because you make intelligent reasoned arguments (which you do) doesn't mean I have to like the world.
(Retreats into grouchy, reactionary sulk). Nov 12, 2007
yarb But is there a better original word? Observe? Survey? They don't carry the same semi-legal connotations. A welcome addition! Nov 12, 2007
sionnach hideous backformation from surveillance; an abomination. Nov 12, 2007