detect
//dɪˈtɛkt//
Forms
- present (v1)
- detect
- past (v2)
- detected
- past participle (v3)
- detected
- present participle
- detecting
- 3rd person singular
- detects
Definitions
1.To discover or find by careful search, examination, or probing.
- Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so permanent in the body that it has been detected in the corpse of a cat eighty-four days after death.
- Diesel maintenance schedules are benefiting from work done on the magnificent Hilger & Watts electronic spectrograph for oil analysis, which detects minute quantities of metals in samples of used lubricating oil; [..].
2.To work or solve cases as a detective.(informal)
- Let me introduce myself: Mike MacAdam, hotel detective. / H-how d-’you do? / Mind if I begin detecting?
- That aversion is tested when he teams up with Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), his father's detecting partner, after the father appears to have been killed in an accident.
- In a detective story, a detective detects; an active effort is made to determine who committed a given crime, and detecting the identity of a criminal could not be done until there were detectives.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2782
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Etymology
From Latin detectus, perfect passive participle of detegere (“to uncover or disclose”)
From de- + tegere (“to cover”); see tegument, tile, thatch.