1918 E. M. Roberts Flying Fighter 337 Long Recon, a trip of from 20 to 80 miles behind the Hun lines to gather information.

1942 Yank 25 Nov. 21 He was temporarily with the recon.

1948 N. Mailer Naked & Dead i. ii. 20 The men in recon looked small and lost in comparison to the other platoons.

1950 ‘D. Divine’ King of Fassarai xiv. 108 Should have the recon reports by now. Get through to Air Command again.

1977 ‘E. McBain’ Long Time no See xiii. 208 Our recon patrol found an enemy base camp.

2006 New Yorker 24 Apr. 90/2 An analyst has some leeway in proposing recon missions in his territory.

1957 S. Benzer in D. McElroy & B. Glass Symposium Chem. Basis Heredity 71 The unit of recombination will be defined as the smallest element in the one-dimensional array that is interchangeable..by genetic recombination. One such element will be referred to as a ‘recon’.

1969 A. M. Campbell Episomes iii. 38 The ‘unit factor’ of the classical geneticist is replaceable by the muton, the recon, the cistron, or even a collection of linked cistrons, each in the appropriate operational context.

1993 Q. Rev. Biol. 68 191/2 The gene occupies a locus on the chromosome, and is subdivisible into mutons and recons, these units being materially equivalent to one nucleotide pair of DNA.

2001 Genome Biol. 2 2/2 Those old enough to remember the early, heroic days of molecular biology..will recall the wild bloom of various ‘-ons’. Some, like codon and operon..are now all over the place; others..became extinct, for example, recon.

1946 Chester (Pa.) Times 22 Apr. 15/8 (advt.) International model... Recon. engine.

1976 Milton Keynes Express 16 July 34/3 (advt.) 1970 Austin Maxi 1500. In brown, recon engine has done approx. 6,000 miles.

1999 Southampton City News July–Aug. 16/5 (advt.) Cycle Centre..servicing—part exchange sales & accessories new and recon bikes.

2005 D. Hammill How to power tune Mini on Small Budget (rev. ed.) i. 13 Good recon units are, effectively, new engines.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. iii. 10 As he that foresees what wil become of a Criminal, re-cons what he has seen follow on the like Crime before.

1823 M. W. Shelley Valperga II. iv. 81 She had framed the mode of her address, conned and reconned the words she should say.

1896 V. G. Plarr In Dorian Mood 70 To be by you Remembered, and perpetually re-conned.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. iii. 10 This we call Remembrance, or calling to mind: the Latines call it Reminiscentia, as it were a Re-conning of our former actions.

1966 National Observer (U.S.) 26 Dec. 1/4 We launched a small operation and while reconning the area, saw a bunch of color near a tree line.

1969 I. Kemp Brit. G.I. in Vietnam v. 96 Our orders are to recon only, and avoid all contact with the enemy whatsoever.

1992 H. N. Schwarzkopf It doesn't take Hero xxiv. 474 I want Safwan airfield and Safwan Mountain occupied and thoroughly reconned..and I want all enemy equipment destroyed.

2004 J. McManus Americans at Normandy iii. 107 Earlier that day, Gehauf had reconned Carentan in an observation plane.