recce

English

Alternative forms

• recco, reccy

Etymology

Clipping of reconnaissance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛ.ki/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rec‧ce
• Rhymes: -ɛki

Noun

recce (countable and uncountable, plural recces)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, military slang) Reconnaissance.
   • 1953, J. (Julian) Maclaren-Ross, The Weeping and the Laughter: A Chapter of Autobiography

     Visiting the town on what in the more recent war we called a recce, she arranged a tennis-match with Dolly, guessing that the girl would be a bad loser.

   • 2006, Vincent Tuckwood, Karaoke Criminals:

     As he climbed into the car, his recce of the space behind the seats was still a little too obvious despite best efforts at subtlety.

   • 2006, Steve Farndon, Escape Inc.:

     I'm afraid you two will have to go on a bit of a recce sometime soon.

   • 2016, Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular, →ISBN, page 92:

     He'd be over at Christmas to do a proper sort-through of Velerie's things, but in the meantime could Shannon have a quiet recce and make sure everything was secure?

   • 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 279:

     Rona disappeared into the little kitchenette and Nicol made a recce of the room.

Adjective

recce (not comparable)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, military slang) Relating to reconnaissance.
   • 1946, United States. Congress. American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack

     There appears a captured photograph showing cruiser or battleship recovery of an old Jap float recce plane.

   • 2006, Tony Holmes, US Marine Corps And RAAF Hornet Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom:

     These record imagery from all three recce sensors - IR, EO and SAR.

   • 2006, Hew Strachan, Big Wars And Small Wars: The British Army and the Lessons of War in the 20th Century:

     Reconnaissance (recce) patrols were the most effective solution that the British and Indian Army designed to identify Japanese units and their intentions, as these could move through the jungle without alerting the enemy to their presence.

Verb

recce (third-person singular simple present recces, present participle recceing, simple past and past participle recced or recce'd or recceed)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, military slang) Reconnoitre.
   • 1961, John Sibly, You'll Walk to Mandalay: A Novel:

     I told the boys to stock up with all they could, and went back to the village to recce for someone to pay as per orders.

   • 2006, James Scott, The Sweaties:

     Take him down there with Entry Two and recce first. If he can't confirm it, we pull out.

Synonyms

• (mainly US) recon

Anagrams

• eccer