detail

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An individual part or item; a particular. See Synonyms at item.
2. n. Particulars considered individually and in relation to a whole: careful attention to detail.
3. n. A minor or an inconsequential item or aspect; a minutia: skipped the details to get to the main point.
4. n. A minute or thorough treatment or account: went into detail about his travels.
5. n. A discrete part or portion of a work, such as a painting, building, or decorative object, especially when considered in isolation.
6. n. A representation of such a part or portion: a detail of a Rembrandt portrait illustrating the technique of chiaroscuro.
7. n. A small elaborated element of a work of art, craft, or design.
8. n. Such elements considered together: the intricate detail of a rococo altarpiece.
9. n. The rendering of artistic detail: the fine detail of the painter's brushwork.
10. n. The selection of one or more troops for a particular duty, usually a fatigue duty.
11. n. The personnel so selected.
12. n. The duty assigned: garbage detail.
13. v. To report or relate minutely or in particulars.
14. v. To name or state explicitly: detailed the charges against the defendant.
15. v. To provide with artistic or decorative detail: detailed the quilt with colorful appliqué.
16. v. To select and dispatch for a particular duty.
17. v. To clean (a car interior, for example) meticulously.
18. idiom. in detail With attention to particulars; thoroughly or meticulously: explained her proposal in detail.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To divide or set off; specifically, to set apart for a particular service; appoint to a separate duty: chiefly in military use: as, to detail a corporal's guard for fatigue duty or as an escort; to detail an officer.
2. To relate, report, or narrate in particulars; recite the particulars of; particularize; tell fully and distinctly: as, to detail all the facts in due order.
3. To give details or particulars about something.
4. n. An individual part; an item; a particular: as, the account is accurate in all its details; the point objected to is an unimportant detail; collectively (without a plural), particulars; particulars considered separately and in relation to the whole: as, a matter of detail.
5. n. In the fine arts, etc., a relatively small, subordinate, and particular part, as distinguished from a general conception or from larger parts or effects; also, such parts collectively (in the singular).
6. n. A minute account; a narrative or report of particulars: as, he gave a detail of all the transaction.
7. n. Milit., the selection of an individual or a body of troops for a particular service; the person or persons so selected; a detachment.
8. n. Individually; part by part.
9. n. Synonyms Relation, recital.
10. n. Squad.
11. n. The service on which one is detailed.

Wiktionary

1. n. Something small enough to escape casual notice.
2. n. A profusion of details.
3. n. Something considered trivial enough to ignore.
4. n. A person's name, address and other personal information.
5. n. A temporary unit or assignment.
6. v. to explain in detail
7. v. ) to clean carefully (particularly a car)
8. v. to assign to a particular task

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A minute portion; one of the small parts; a particular; an item; -- used chiefly in the plural.
2. n. A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
3. n. The selection for a particular service of a person or a body of men; hence, the person or the body of men so selected.
4. n. A minor part, as, in a building, the cornice, caps of the buttresses, capitals of the columns, etc., or (called larger details) a porch, a gable with its windows, a pavilion, or an attached tower.
5. n. A detail drawing.
6. v. To relate in particulars; to particularize; to report minutely and distinctly; to enumerate; to specify.
7. v. To tell off or appoint for a particular service, as an officer, a troop, or a squadron.
8. v. To provide with fine or intricate added decoration.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. extended treatment of particulars
2. v. assign to a specific task
3. n. an isolated fact that is considered separately from the whole
4. n. a small part that can be considered separately from the whole
5. n. a temporary military unit
6. v. provide details for
7. n. a crew of workers selected for a particular task