desk

English Online Dictionary. What means desk‎? What does desk mean?

English

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".

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /dɛsk/
• Rhymes: -ɛsk

Noun

desk (plural desks)

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. A department tasked with a particular topic or focus in certain types of businesses, such as newspapers and financial trading firms.

   the city desk, the sports desk

   the options desk, the equities desk

4. Short for mixing desk.
5. 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

Descendants

• → Irish: deasc
• → Welsh: desg

Translations

Verb

desk (third-person singular simple present desks, present participle desking, simple past and past participle desked)

1. (transitive) To shut up, as in a desk; to treasure. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. (transitive) To equip with a desk or desks.
3. (transitive, journalism) To reject (an article submitted to a newspaper or academic journal etc.) on initial receipt, without reviewing it further.

Anagrams

• KEDs, deks, keds, sked

Middle English

Adjective

desk

1. Alternative form of dosk