▪ discover or investigate (a crime or its perpetrators):"the public can help the police to detect crime"Similardiscoveruncoverfindfind outturn upunearthdig updredge uproot outhunt outnose outferret outexposerevealbring to lightbring into the opencome acrossstumble onchance onhit onencountersolveclear upget to the bottom offind the perpetrator offind the person behindinformal:figure outcrackcatchhunt downfindexposerevealunmasksmoke outferret outtrack downapprehendarrestinformal:nail
Word Originlate Middle English: from Latin detect- ‘uncovered’, from the verb detegere, from de- (expressing reversal) + tegere ‘to cover’. The original senses were ‘uncover, expose’ and ‘give someone away’, later ‘expose the real or hidden nature of’; hence the current (partly influenced by detective).
