displacement

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of displacing.
2. n. The condition of having been displaced.
3. n. Chemistry A reaction in which an atom, radical, or molecule replaces another in a compound.
4. n. Physics A vector or the magnitude of a vector from the initial position to a subsequent position assumed by a body.
5. n. Physics The weight or volume of a fluid displaced by a floating body, used especially as a measurement of the weight or bulk of ships.
6. n. The volume displaced by a single stroke of a piston in an engine or pump.
7. n. Geology The relative movement between the two sides of a fault.
8. n. Geology The distance between the two sides of a fault. Also called dislocation.
9. n. Psychiatry A psychological defense mechanism in which there is an unconscious shift of emotions, affect, or desires from the original object to a more acceptable or immediate substitute.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A putting out of place; removal from a former or usual or proper place, or from a position, dignity, or office.
2. n. A putting in the place of another or of something else; substitution in place; replacement by exchange.
3. n. In hydrostatics, the quantity of a liquid which is displaced by a solid body placed in it. If the weight of the displacement is greater than or equal to that of the body, the latter will float; if less, it will sink to the bottom, as a stone. A buoyant material sinks to a level where the pressure of the fluid displaced is sufficient to counterbalance its weight. The term is most frequently used in connection with ships: as, a ship of 3,000 tons displacement.
4. n. In pharmacy, a method by which the active principles of organic bodies are extracted from them. The body, reduced to a powder, is subjected to the action of a liquid which dissolves the soluble matter. When this has been sufficiently charged, it is displaced or replaced by a quantity of the same or of another liquid. Same as percolation.
5. n. In mech., the geometrical difference or exact relation between the position of a body at any moment and its initial position.
6. n. In veg. teratol., a malformation, in leaves, due to abnormal cohesion or fusion of parts which results in dislocation and other apparent changes in the form. Thus two fused leaves may appear like a single lobed leaf, a whorl may be reduced to two opposite leaves, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of displacing, or the state of being displaced; a putting out of place.
2. n. The quantity of anything, as water, displaced by a floating body, as by a ship, the weight of the displaced liquid being equal to that of the displacing body.
3. n. chemistry The process of extracting soluble substances from organic material and the like, whereby a quantity of saturated solvent is displaced, or removed, for another quantity of the solvent.
4. n. fencing Moving the target to avoid an attack; dodging.
5. n. physics A vector quantity which denotes distance with a directional component.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of displacing, or the state of being displaced; a putting out of place.
2. n. The quantity of anything, as water, displaced by a floating body, as by a ship, the weight of the displaced liquid being equal to that of the displacing body.
3. n. (Chem.) The process of extracting soluble substances from organic material and the like, whereby a quantity of saturated solvent is displaced, or removed, for another quantity of the solvent.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. act of taking the place of another especially using underhanded tactics
2. n. to move something from its natural environment
3. n. (chemistry) a reaction in which an elementary substance displaces and sets free a constituent element from a compound
4. n. an event in which something is displaced without rotation
5. n. act of removing from office or employment
6. n. the act of uniform movement
7. n. (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original object to some more acceptable one