desk
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɛsk/
rhymes: -ɛsk
Forms: form: desks
Etymology: From Middle English deske, desque, from Medieval Latin desca, modified from Old Italian desco, from Latin discus. Doublet of dais, disc, discus, dish, disk, and diskos. See also German Tisch, "table".
Senses: examples: text: She organized her notes neatly on her desk before starting the project.
text: The desk was cluttered with papers and books, making it hard to concentrate.
text: He sat at his desk for hours, trying to finish the report.
text: Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A table, frame, or case, in past centuries usually with a sloping top but now usually with a flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a drawer or repository underneath.
glosses: A reading table or lectern to support the book from which the liturgical service is read, differing from the pulpit from which the sermon is preached; also (especially in the United States), a pulpit. Hence, used symbolically for the clerical profession.
examples: text: the city desk, the sports desk
text: the options desk, the equities desk
glosses: A department tasked with a particular topic or focus in certain types of businesses, such as newspapers and financial trading firms.
examples: text: Each aux out is connected to an effects unit and the signal is then returned into the desk.
ref: 2009, Rick Snoman, Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys and Techniques, page 69:
glosses: Ellipsis of mixing desk.
examples: text: The first four desks of cellos play separate parts, making a lush, Impressionist harmony.
text: […]at best a competent viola player occupies a first desk, so that he may play the occasional solos for that instrument; but I have even seen this function performed by the leaderof the first violins.
ref: 2003, Sheila M. Nelson, The Violin and Viola: History, Structure, Techniques, page 158:
text: First desk: Lalance, chevalier de, composer; Meslay, Masson de, President of the exchequer, amateur; Blasius, Pierre, the elder, professor of music; Second desk:[…]
ref: 2006, Gabriel Banat, The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow, page 270:
text: Lori performed for years with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski as a first-desk violinist. (She says that Stokowski was not a Russian but an Englishman named Stokes. His Russian accent varied a lot.)
ref: 2014, Reuben Hersh, Peter Lax, Mathematician, page 46:
glosses: A station for a string player in an orchestra, consisting of a chair and a music stand, or a row of such stations.
Hypernyms: furniture
Coordinate terms: chair
Derived terms: al desko
Carlton House desk
cash desk
cashier's desk
checkout desk
city desk
copy desk
deskband
desk blotter
deskbook
deskbound
desk caddy
desk calendar
desk chair
desk check
desk dictionary
desk drawer
desk drop
deskercise
desk fan
deskfast
deskful
deskie
desk job
desk jockey
desk killer
desk lamp
desklamp
desklet
desklike
deskman
deskmate
desk murderer
desk organiser
desk organizer
desk pad
deskphone
desk pilot
desk potato
desk rage
desk rejection
deskscape
desk sergeant
deskside
deskspace
desk tidy
desktop
deskward
desk work
deskwork
deskworker
double desk
fly a desk
front desk
front-desk
Governor Winthrop desk
headdesk
help desk
help-desk
hobby desk
hot desk
hot-desk
infodesk
information desk
key desk
kneehole desk
lap desk
litany desk
mixing desk
newsdesk
news desk
partners desk
picture desk
reception desk
Resolute desk
rolltop desk
roll-top desk
standing desk
teacher's desk
telephone desk
Winthrop desk
writing desk