All 17 Uses of

discern

in

The Scarlet Letter

More frequently, however, on ascending the steps, you would discern— in the entry if it were summer time, or in their appropriate rooms if wintry or inclement weathers—a row of venerable figures, sitting in old-fashioned chairs, which were tipped on their hind legs back against the wall.†
p. 11.7

discern = notice or understand something

It was plain enough to discern that the old fellows dreaded some such discourtesy at my hands.†
p. 16.2

Nevertheless, looking at the old warrior with affection—for, slight as was the communication between us, my feeling towards him, like that of all bipeds and quadrupeds who knew him, might not improperly be termed so,—I could discern the main points of his portrait.†
p. 20.7

It appalled her, nevertheless, to discern here, again, a shadowy reflection of the evil that had existed in herself.†
p. 65.6

I, whom you behold in these black garments of the priesthood—I, who ascend the sacred desk, and turn my pale face heavenward, taking upon myself to hold communion in your behalf with the Most High Omniscience—I, in whose daily life you discern the sanctity of Enoch—I, whose footsteps, as you suppose, leave a gleam along my earthly track, whereby the Pilgrims that shall come after me may be guided to the regions of the blest—I, who have laid the hand of baptism upon your children—I, who have breathed the parting prayer over your dying friends, to whom the Amen sounded faintly from†
p. 96.8

Alas! if he discern such sinfulness in his own white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine!
p. 97.3 *

discern = can see

At any moment, by an effort of his will, he could discern substances through their misty lack of substance, and convince himself that they were not solid in their nature, like yonder table of carved oak, or that big, square, leather-bound and brazen-clasped volume of divinity.†
p. 98.3

discern = notice or understand something

If the same multitude which had stood as eye-witnesses while Hester Prynne sustained her punishment could now have been summoned forth, they would have discerned no face above the platform nor hardly the outline of a human shape, in the dark grey of the midnight.†
p. 99.3

discerned = noticed something that is not obvious

Whom would they discern there, with the red eastern light upon his brow?†
p. 102.3

discern = notice or understand something

The minister appeared to see him, with the same glance that discerned the miraculous letter.†
p. 104.8

discerned = noticed something that is not obvious

She discerns, it may be, such a hopeless task before her.†
p. 111.2

discerns = notices things that are not obvious

Her only justification lay in the fact that she had been able to discern no method of rescuing him from a blacker ruin than had overwhelmed herself except by acquiescing in Roger Chillingworth's scheme of disguise.†
p. 112.0

discern = notice or understand something

All this while Hester had been looking steadily at the old man, and was shocked, as well as wonder-smitten, to discern what a change had been wrought upon him within the past seven years.†
p. 113.9

—and then look inward, and discern the black reality of what they idolise?†
p. 129.7

It was to teach them, that the holiest amongst us has but attained so far above his fellows as to discern more clearly the Mercy which looks down, and repudiate more utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look aspiringly upward.†
p. 172.0

All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate—as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport—there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon.†
p. 174.9

Definition:

to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious