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more about discerning
discerning |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Discerning \Dis*cern"ing\, a. Acute; shrewd; sagacious; sharp-sighted. --Macaulay. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Discern \Dis*cern"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Discerned}; p. pr & vb n. {Discerning}.] [F. discerner, L. discernere, discretum dis- + cernere to separate, distinguish. See {Certain}, and cf {Discreet}.] 1. To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note the distinctive character of to discriminate; to distinguish. To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms. --Boyle. A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern from a right stone. --Robynson (More's Utopia). 2. To see by the eye or by the understanding; to perceive and recognize; as to discern a difference. And [I] beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding. --Prov. vii. 7. Our unassisted sight . . . is not acute enough to discern the minute texture of visible objects. --Beattie. I wake, and I discern the truth. --Tennyson. Syn: To perceive; distinguish; discover; penetrate; discriminate; espy; descry; detect. See {Perceive}. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: discerning adj 1: having or revealing keen insight and good judgment; "a discerning critic"; "a discerning reader" [ant: {undiscerning}] 2: unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic; "a discerning editor"; "a discreet silence" [syn: {discreet}] 3: quick to understand; "a kind and apprehensive friend"- Nathaniel Hawthorne [syn: {apprehensive}] 4: able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive; "discerning taste"; "a fine eye for color" [syn: {fine}]
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