undecipher

present singular third person undeciphers · participle present undeciphering · participle past undeciphered · past undeciphered

1. raretransitiveTo decipher.

   It were very good policy in times of warre, suites, or jealousie, to learne to undecipher mouths, lookes, and gates; there is more to be got out of them, then out of this extaticall speech […]

   1654, Edmund Gayton, Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot, page 6

   3 more examples

   I am sure your Lordship is concerned in the former, and I think also in the latter; a good part whereof was written in characters, and cyphers set for the names. He that did undecypher it is a most honest man, and is very confident he hath hit it right.

   1644 March 3, Robert King, “[Letter to the Marquess of Ormonde]”, in Thomas Carte, editor, Collection of Letters, Written by the Kings Charles I and II […] and Other Great Men during the Troubles of Great Britain and Ireland […], volume 3, published 1735, page 389

   The extraordinary beauty of the delinquent made several painters of those times draw her portrait, many copies of which are still to be found in Rome, exhibiting the softest features, and a Lavater would have had much ado to undecypher from them the blackness of the soul.

   1791, Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz, translated by Joseph Trapp, A Picture of Italy, page 227

   Many attempts have been made to undecipher the script, but at present there is a lot of controversy on this matter. The only remaining clue as to unravel the meaning of the images is offered by comparison with similar subjects.

   2008, Alexandra Anna Enrica van der Geer, Animals in Stone: Indian Mammals Sculptured Through Time, page 384