(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"
old; no longer in use or valid or fashionable; "obsolete words"; "an obsolete locomotive"; "outdated equipment"; "superannuated laws"; "out-of-date ideas"
a mode of action; "if you persist in that course you will surely fail"; "once a nation is embarked on a course of action it becomes extremely difficult for any retraction to take place"
education imparted in a series of lessons or meetings; "he took a course in basket weaving"; "flirting is not unknown in college classes"
facility consisting of a circumscribed area of land or water laid out for a sport; "the course had only nine holes"; "the course was less than a mile"
(construction) a layer of masonry; "a course of bricks"
part of a meal served at one time; "she prepared a three course meal"
a connected series of events or actions or developments; "the government took a firm course"; "historians can only point out those lines for which evidence is available"
general line of orientation; "the river takes a southern course"; "the northeastern trend of the coast"
hunt with hounds; "He often courses hares"
move swiftly through or over; "ships coursing the Atlantic"
a single undivided whole; "an idea is not a unit that can be moved from one brain to another"
an organization regarded as part of a larger social group; "the coach said the offensive unit did a good job"; "after the battle the soldier had trouble rejoining his unit"
a single undivided natural thing occurring in the composition of something else; "units of nucleic acids"
an individual or group or structure or other entity regarded as a structural or functional constituent of a whole; "the reduced the number of units and installations"; "the word is a basic linguistic unit"
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"
an officer holding a commissioned rank in the United States Navy or the United States Coast Guard; below lieutenant commander and above lieutenant junior grade
the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed
tending to crumble or break into flakes due to a large amount of shortening; "shortbread is a short crumbly cookie"; "a short flaky pie crust"
(primarily spatial sense) having little length or lacking in length; "short skirts"; "short hair"; "the board was a foot short"; "a short toss"
primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration; "a short life"; "a short flight"; "a short holiday"; "a short story"; "only a few short months"
of speech sounds or syllables of relatively short duration; "the English vowel sounds in `pat', `pet', `pit', `pot', putt' are short"
not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices; "a short sale"; "short in cotton"
lacking foresight or scope; "a short view of the problem"; "shortsighted policies"; "shortsighted critics derided the plan"; "myopic thinking"
low in stature; not tall; "he was short and stocky"; "short in stature"; "a short smokestack"
at a disadvantage; "I was caught short"
so as to interrupt; "She took him up short before he could continue"
at some point or distance before a goal is reached; "he fell short of our expectations"
clean across; "the car's axle snapped short"
without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold; "he made his fortune by selling short just before the crash"
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"