Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A piece of furniture typically having a flat or sloping top for writing and often drawers or compartments.
  • noun A table, counter, or booth at which specified services or functions are performed.
  • noun A department of a large organization in charge of a specified operation.
  • noun A lectern.
  • noun A music stand in an orchestra.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A table specially adapted for convenience in writing or reading, frequently made with a sloping top, which may lift on hinges to give access to an interior compartment, as in the ordinary form of school-desk, or combined with drawers, and sometimes with book-shelves; also, a frame or case with a sloping top, intended to rest on a table, and to hold a book or paper conveniently for reading or writing.
  • To shut, up in or as if in a desk; treasure up.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A table, frame, or case, usually with sloping top, but often with flat top, for the use writers and readers. It often has a drawer or repository underneath.
  • noun 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 (esp. in the United States), a pulpit. Hence, used symbolically for “the clerical profession.”
  • transitive verb To shut up, as in a desk; to treasure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A table, frame, or case, usually with sloping top, but often with flat top, for the use writers and readers. It often has a drawer or repository underneath.
  • noun 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.
  • verb To shut up, as in a desk; to treasure.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a piece of furniture with a writing surface and usually drawers or other compartments

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin desca, from Latin discus.

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