detect — ozdic

Definitions

verb

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; [...].

adj

1

Detected.

verb

1

To work or solve cases as a detective.

Parker would in all likelihood have done so; he was paid to detect and to do nothing else, and neither his natural gifts nor his education (at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School) prompted him to stray into side-tracks at the beck of an ill-regulated imagination.

Let me introduce myself: Mike MacAdam, hotel detective. / H-how d-’you do? / Mind if I begin detecting?

Collocations

12

1

(verb.)

ADV

early, late

The security system detected the intruder late at night, but fortunately the police arrived quickly.

quickly

easily, readily

The new security system can easily detect unusual movement in the building at night.

accurately

VERB + DETECT

be able to, be sensitive enough to, can

Modern smoke detectors can detect even small amounts of smoke in a room within seconds.

be unable to

be designed to

fail to

The security cameras failed to detect the burglar who entered through the basement window.

be difficult to, be hard to, be impossible to

be easy to, be possible to

be used to

PHRASES

be capable of detecting sth, a means/method/way of detecting sth

Thesaurus

Synonyms

verb — discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Example Bank

6

01

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.

Wiktionary

02

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 lubr

Wiktionary

03

Parker would in all likelihood have done so; he was paid to detect and to do nothing else, and neither his natural gifts nor his education (at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School) prompted him to stray i

Wiktionary

04

Let me introduce myself: Mike MacAdam, hotel detective. / H-how d-’you do? / Mind if I begin detecting?

Wiktionary

05

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.

Wiktionary

06

The computer can detect 200 types of error.

Tatoeba · #50357

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, detect is marked as obsolete, informal. Watch for register when choosing this word.