secerns

Verb

secern (third-person singular simple present secerns, present participle secerning, simple past and past participle secerned)

1. (archaic, literary, transitive) To separate or set apart (someone or something from other persons or things).
   • '[T]is not ſo much a local and bodily ſecerning our ſelves from evil men that God requires (as the Donatiſts falſely taught) but a ſpiritual ſeparation in mind and affections, and from their ſins, more than from their perſons.1657, William Morice, “Diatribe. Sect[ion] III.”, in Cœna quasi Κοινη [Koine]: The Common Right to the Lords Supper Asserted in a Diatribe & Defence thereof, […], 2nd edition, London: […] R[obert]...

   Synonyms:

   allocate, appropriate, shelve, assign, dedicate, detach, designate, earmark, preselect, put aside

2. (broadly, literary, transitive) To separate (something from other things) in the mind; to discriminate, to distinguish.

   Synonyms:

   differentiate, discern

3. (archaic, literary, transitive) Synonym of secrete (“to extract or separate (a substance) from the blood, etc., for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function”).
   • [T]he joint-glands themſelves grovv rigid, and ſecern leſs of their proper humour. Hence vvhen the gout falls upon people in years, it proves very ſevere, for vvant of a neceſſary quantity of that oleaginous matter to extinguiſh it.1734, William Stukeley, “Part II”, in Of the Gout; […], London; Dublin: […] Theo. Jones […], published 1735, →OCLC, page 25

   Synonyms:

   secrete

4. (intransitive, literary) Of a person or thing: to become separated from others.
5. (intransitive, literary, rare) To secrete a substance.
   • […] Birds bee commonly better Meat than Beaſts, becauſe their Fleſh doth aſſimilate more finely, and ſecerneth more ſubtilly.1631, Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century. [Experiment Solitary Touching Pilosity and Plumage.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley...