From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishspy something ↔ out phrasal verb1 SPYto secretly find out information about something2 spy out the land British EnglishFIND OUT to secretly find out more information about a situation before deciding what to do → spy→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
spy out• By their cutbacks you shall spy them out.• Will right-to - life spies search out perpetrators?• At a London performance, a spy was sent out to research audience opinion.spy out the land• Certainly he would have gone down there alone to spy out the land and check on his property.• She enticed into her house the party Odysseus dispatched to spy out the land, and there she changed them into swine. 