(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
a person's social heritage: previous experience or training; "he is a lawyer with a sports background"
information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem; "the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"
the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground; "he posed her against a background of rolling hills"
relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation; "when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured; "they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals"
understate the importance or quality of; "he played down his royal ancestry"
abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant; "slavish devotion to her job ruled her life"; "a slavish yes-man to the party bosses"- S.H.Adams; "she has become submissive and subservient"
blindly imitative; "a slavish copy of the original"
the destruction of an enemy plane or ship or tank or missile; "the pilot reported two kills during the mission"
destroy a vitally essential quality of or in; "Eating artichokes kills the taste of all other foods"
cause to cease operating; "kill the engine"
tire out completely; "The daily stress of her work is killing her"
mark for deletion, rub off, or erase; "kill these lines in the President's speech"
cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly; "This man killed several people when he tried to rob a bank"; "The farmer killed a pig for the holidays"
cause the death of, without intention; "She was killed in the collision of three cars"
deprive of life; "AIDS has killed thousands in Africa"
hit with great force; "He killed the ball"
hit with so much force as to make a return impossible, in racket games; "She killed the ball"
overwhelm with hilarity, pleasure, or admiration; "The comedian was so funny, he was killing me!"
be the source of great pain for; "These new shoes are killing me!"
thwart the passage of; "kill a motion"; "he shot down the student's proposal"
be fatal; "cigarettes kill"; "drunken driving kills"
the act of forcibly dispossessing an owner of property
the removal of an opponent's piece from the chess board
the act of taking of a person by force
any process in which an atomic or nuclear system acquires an additional particle
a process whereby a star or planet holds an object in its gravitational field
capture as if by hunting, snaring, or trapping; "I caught a rabbit in the trap toady"
succeed in representing or expressing something intangible; "capture the essence of Spring"; "capture an idea"
attract; cause to be enamored; "She captured all the men's hearts"
bring about the capture of an elementary particle or celestial body and causing it enter a new orbit; "This nucleus has captured the slow-moving neutrons"; "The star captured a comet"
a particular kind of commercial enterprise; "they are outstanding in their field"
the area that is visible (as through an optical instrument)
all the competitors in a particular contest or sporting event
all of the horses in a particular horse race
(mathematics) a set of elements such that addition and multiplication are commutative and associative and multiplication is distributive over addition and there are two elements 0 and 1; "the set of all rational numbers is a field"
(computer science) a set of one or more adjacent characters comprising a unit of information
a region in which active military operations are in progress; "the army was in the field awaiting action"; "he served in the Vietnam theater for three years"
somewhere (away from a studio or office or library or laboratory) where practical work is done or data is collected; "anthropologists do much of their work in the field"
a piece of land cleared of trees and usually enclosed; "he planted a field of wheat"
a geographic region (land or sea) under which something valuable is found; "the diamond fields of South Africa"
the space around a radiating body within which its electromagnetic oscillations can exert force on another similar body not in contact with it
select (a team or individual player) for a game; "The Buckeyes fielded a young new quarterback for the Rose Bowl"
answer adequately or successfully; "The lawyer fielded all questions from the press"
a raised horizontal surface; "the speaker mounted the platform"
any military structure or vehicle bearing weapons
the combination of a particular computer and a particular operating system
a document stating the aims and principles of a political party; "their candidate simply ignored the party platform"; "they won the election even though they offered no positive program"