discover

Less common meanings

4. 4
   exposeverbarchaictransitive

   To uncover something, removing what covers it or exposing what was hidden from view.

   Similaruncover

   Note

   Here the subject can be a force rather than a person: a gust of wind discovers a bone by blowing the sand off it. Modern readers tend to hear the "find" sense instead, as if the wind had come across the bone, so this rare use invites a misreading. Where clarity matters, expose or uncover says the same thing without the ambiguity. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • In the uncovering sense, discover can have a natural force as its subject, as in wind exposing a bone in sand. en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To show or reveal a quality or feeling unintentionally, without deliberate design.

   The youth discovered a taste for sculpture.

   1871, Charles John Smith, Synonyms Discriminated

   The English Cooks keep all their Spices in separate boxes, but the French Cooks make a spicey mixture that does not discover a predominancy of any one of the spices over the others.

   1806, Alexander Hunter, Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ

   Note

   Where the revealing sense usually has someone making a thing known, here a quality simply shows itself, with no one intending it. Alexander Hunter's Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ describes a French spice mixture that does not discover a predominancy of any one spice. Charles John Smith's Synonyms Discriminated shows the trap with a youth who "discovered a taste for sculpture". Modern readers hear "found he liked it", but the older sense means "displayed it".

6. 6
   verbCanada

   To question a person under oath as part of the pretrial discovery process in a lawsuit.
7. 7
   verb

   To create an attack by moving a piece out of the path of another piece behind it that then bears on the target.