What is discover?

More definitions of "discover":

• (verb): See for the first time; make a discovery.
  Example: "Who discovered the North Pole?"

• (verb): Discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of.
  Synonyms: detect, observe, find, notice

• (verb): Identify as in botany or biology, for example.
  Synonyms: identify, key, key out, distinguish, describe, name

• (verb): Get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally.
  Synonyms: learn, hear, get word, get wind, pick up, find out, get a line, see

• (verb): Find unexpectedly.
  Synonyms: fall upon, strike, come upon, light upon, chance upon, come across, chance on, happen upon, attain

• (verb): Make a discovery, make a new finding.
  Synonyms: find

• (verb): Make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret.
  Synonyms: disclose, let on, bring out, reveal, expose, divulge, impart, break, give away, let out

Famous quotes containing the word discover:

“The absence on the panel of anyone who could become pregnant accidentally or discover her salary was five thousand dollars a year less than that of her male counterpart meant there was a hole in the consciousness of the committee that empathy, however welcome, could not entirely fill.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)

“We had not gone far before I was startled by seeing what I thought was an Indian encampment, covered with a red flag, on the bank, and exclaimed, “Camp!” to my comrades. I was slow to discover that it was a red maple changed by the frost.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“Where I would like to discover facts, I find fancy. Where I would like to learn what I did, I learn only what I was thinking. They are loaded with opinion, moral thoughts, quick evaluations, youthful hopes and cares and sorrows. Occasionally, they manage to report something in exquisite honesty and accuracy. That is why I have refrained from burning them.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)