desk

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The man at the desk was the Minister of a Kingdom, and looked it.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A piece of furniture typically having a flat or sloping top for writing and often drawers or compartments.
  2. noun A table, counter, or booth at which specified services or functions are performed: an information desk; a reception desk.
  3. noun A department of a large organization in charge of a specified operation: a newspaper's city desk.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Maybe that's because the only thing typically found on my desk is a computer. —  doggdot.us
  • In a drawer of the desk was an automatic pistol and a box of cartridges. —  Blacksheep! Blacksheep!
  • In front of the desk is a group of three gents, one of 'em not over fifty or so; but when I edges up close enough to hear what the debate is about, I finds it has something to do with a scheme for revivin' Italian opera in Boston, and I backs off so sudden I almost bumps into a hook-beaked old dame who is waddlin' up to the letter-box Sorry," says I. —  The House of Torchy
  • As he stood up he yawned and wrinkled his fat face a good deal; but the wrinkles died down into a smile which gave him a meek and mild appearance, the said smile being doubled directly after by his taking a little round shaving-glass out of his desk, propping it up by means of a contrivance behind, and then, by the help of a pocket-comb, proceeding to rearrange his hair, which, from the resistance offered, appeared to be full of knots and kinks The last to leave his desk was a manly-looking young fellow who appeared to be twenty, but who possessed documentary evidence that he was only eighteen. —  A Dash from Diamond City
  • Upon the top of the desk were the two skulls which had first attracted Scott's attention, and which he now regarded rather curiously. —  That Mainwaring Affair
 

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This word has been looked up 110 times.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English deske, from Medieval Latin desca, table, from Old Italian desco, from Latin discus, quoit; see disk.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English deske, a desk, reading-desk, from Old French *desque, disque, French disque = Spanish Portuguese disco = Italian desco, a table, from Latin discus, a disk, quoit, Middle Latin discus, also desca, a table, desk, whence also Anglo-Saxon disc, English dish, and modern English disc, disk, and, through F., dais, which are thus all ult. the same word: see dish, disk, dais.
  2. from desk, n.
 

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/dɛsk/
by American Heritage

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