SPY

I. verb (spied; ~ing) Etymology: Middle English spien, from Anglo-French espier, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German spehōn to ~; akin to Latin specere to look, look at, Greek skeptesthai & skopein to watch, look at, consider Date: 13th century transitive verb to watch secretly usually for hostile purposes, to catch sight of ; see , to search or look for intensively, intransitive verb to observe or search for something ; look , to watch secretly as a ~, II. noun (plural spies) Date: 13th century one that spies:, one who keeps secret watch on a person or thing to obtain information, a person employed by one nation to secretly convey classified information of strategic importance to another nation, an act of ~ing