spy-the stem of the vb. used in combs., in the sense of ‘that spies’ as spy-all, spy-fault, spy-maiden, or ‘from or through which one may spy, used for spying’ as spy-camera, spy-hole, spy-house, spy-microphone, spy-mike, spy-tower, spy-window. Also spy-glass.(a)1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. xi. 256 Thei haue also certaine spiefaultes ordinarilie appoincted..that spie in euery shiere suche as be necligent.1593Passionate Morrice 80 This Honestie is such a pestilent spie-fault.1631J. Done Polydoron 117 A Criminal shall have faultie Spy-faults Enough going to Prison.1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 11 The first Thing he peeps at, thro' this trusty Spy-all, is, the Chase's Port-Holes.1791Cowper Iliad xi. 469 Archer shrew-tongued! spie-maiden! man of curls!(b)1717Berkeley Jrnl. Tour ItalyWks. 1871 IV. 542 Towers..along the coast, being spy-towers against the Turks.1755S. Richardson Let. 15 Aug. in Sel.Lett. (1964) 321 My spy-window—Ay, that is the window of my vexation—workmen are—workmen... Only, that workmen I wish they were.1867P. Kennedy Banks of Boro xxxvii. 288, I got a..tumbler of punch sitting in my corner inside the spy⁓hole.1888Stevenson Black Arrow 125 Here and there, were spyholes, concealed, on the other side, by the carving of the cornice.1896Allbutt's Syst.Med. I. 312 L is a glass spy-hole through which the inmates can be watched.1896R. G. Moulton Bk. JobIntrod. 38 The eagle in her spy-house of inaccessible crags.1903W. Ward Probl. & Persons 308 Another room at Moorfields, with a spy window.1955Pohl & Kornbluth Space Merchants i. 4 Nothing but the usual State Department and House of Representatives spy⁓mikes.1960Sunday Express 17 July 1 (heading) Spy⁓mikes sensation. Arms firms checked for ‘listening walls’.1960Sunday Express 17 July 1 Tiny hidden spy-microphones planted by foreign agents.1968Punch 2 Oct. 495/1 Television spy-cameras, hooked to machines which will translate a visual image into patterns and templates, hooked to high-speed rotary presses, will start stamping out copies in all sizes.1972Times 14 Dec. 2/8 A Henry Moore bronze..disappeared from the Lefevre Gallery..although a television ‘spy’ camera was operating.1977J. Hedgecoe Photographer's Handbk. 21 Made in Czechoslovakia the Mikroma ‘spy camera’..has a seven speed shutter and a f3.5 lens.