deskn.
/dɛsk/, U.S. /dɛsk/ 1. An article of furniture for a library, study, church, school, or office, the essential feature of which is a table, board, or the like, intended to serve as a rest for a book, manuscript, writing-paper, etc., while reading or writing, for which purpose the surface usually presents a suitable slope. The name is applied to articles differing greatly in details of construction and in accessories, according to their particular purpose, which is often indicated by a qualification, as litany-desk, music-desk, prayer-desk, school-desk, writing-desk, etc. See also reading desk n. at reading n.1 Compounds 3.It may be a simple table, board, or shelf fixed at a convenient height for resting a book, etc., while reading or writing, or fitted on a small frame so as to be placed on a table, or upon a taller frame, with legs, etc., so as itself to stand on the floor, or it may be more or less elaborately provided with shelves for books, and with drawers and receptacles for papers, documents, etc., such as are required for use in a library, study, school, or office.† c. In early use, applied also to a shelf, case, or press, on or in which books stand in a library or study. Obsolete.
a. As a requisite for reading or writing on, or studying at.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > desk > [noun]
deskc1405
lectern1509
dess1552
book desk1686
prie-dieu1687
bureau1698
secretary1803
toys1816
secretaire1818
consulting-desk1823
slope1833
box-desk1860
roll-top1884
type-desk1901
partners' desk1925
partners' pedestal desk1930
console1944
c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Franklin's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l.420 At Orliens in Studie a book he say Of Magyk naturel, which his felawe..Hadde prively vp on his desk [v.r. deske] ylaft.
c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 299 Leterone or lectorne, deske, lectrinum, etc.
a1500 Orol. Sap. in Anglia X. 356 Lenynge hym vpon a deske.
1581 R. Mulcaster Positions v. 34 Incke & paper..a deske & a dustboxe will set them both vp [i.e. a scholar to learn to draw as well as to write].
1594 H. Plat Jewell House 38 You must have a deske of the cleerest and evenest glasse that is to be bought..Upon this Deske you must fasten the patterne at the foure endes with a little wax.
1615 J. Stephens Ess. & Characters (new ed.) 333 Lawyers Clarke..Hee doth relye upon his maisters practise, large indentures, and a deske to write upon.
1666 S. Pepys Diary 23 Jan. (1974) VIII. 25 I observed the Deske which he hath to remove, and is fastened to one of the armes of his Chayre.
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 109. ⁋5 He sits with one Hand on a Desk writing.
1785 J. Boswell Jrnl. Tour Hebrides 17 Aug. 41 [Johnson:] Composing a Dictionary requires books and a desk. You can make a poem walking in the fields, or lying in bed.
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby ii. 6 Nickleby closed an account-book which lay on his desk.
1842 Ld. Tennyson Audley Court in Poems (new ed.) II. 44 Oh! who would cast and balance at a desk, Perch'd like a crow upon a three-legg'd stool?
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess ii. 28 To Lady Psyche's:..There sat along the forms,..A patient range of pupils; she herself Erect behind a desk of satin-wood.
1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam cxxvi. 198 To cramp the student at his desk . View more context for this quotation
1872 J. Morley Voltaire iii. 104 He seems to have usually passed the whole day at his desk.
b. As a repository for writing materials, letters, etc., as well as for writing on. In modern use often a portable box or case opening so as to present a sloping surface.
ΚΠ
1548 T. Cooper Bibliotheca Eliotæ (rev. ed.) Pluteus..a littell holowe deske lyke a coffer, whereupon men do write.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) iv. i. 103 In the Deske That's couer'd o're with Turkish Tapistrie, There is a purse of Duckets. View more context for this quotation
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §658 Some..for Tables, Cupboards and Desks, as Walnuts.
1692 J. Washington tr. J. Milton Def. People Eng. Pref. p. xv Your Boxes and Desks, stufft with nothing but Trifles.
1720 A. Pope Let. 1 May (1960) 154 I have been obliged to leave unfinished in my desk the heads of two essays.
1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate II. vii. 193 She got out her desk and prepared herself for her letter.
1895 N.E.D. at Desk Mod. The prisoner had forced the desk open and taken the money out of it.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > receptacle for books > [noun] > bookcase
libraryc1374
deska1552
bookpress1611
bookcase1698
bookstand1743
bookrack1809
book unit1901
c1400 Promptorium Parvulorum 120 Deske, pluteum.
1483 Cath. Angl. 97 A Deske; pluteus [a book-shelf, book-case, desk].]
a1552 J. Leland Itinerary (1710) I. 46 At the Toppe of every Square was a Desk ledgid to set Bookes on Bookes on Cofers withyn them.
1557 T. North tr. A. de Guevara Diall Princes Gen. Prol. f. Aiij One that for his pastime is set round with deskes of bookes.
1669 Hackett Let. in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) II. 554 Expended..upon the College Library, either for bookes, or desques.
1717 G. Berkeley Jrnls. Trav. Italy 7 Jan. in Wks. (1955) VII. 245 The books are all contained in desks or presses whose backs stand to the wall. These desks are all low, of an equal height so that the highest books are within reach without the least straining.
2. † b. A seat or pew in a church. Cf. dais n. 3(b). Obsolete. Scottish.
a. In a church or chapel: In the general sense of 1, a sloping board on which books used in the service are laid, as the book-board in a pulpit. Hence formerly (and still in U.S.) applied to the seat, stall, or pulpit of the minister, or, (as still in Scotland) to that of the clerk or precentor; in England, to the stalls or choir-seats, and to the reading-desk in the now obsolescent arrangement of pulpit, reading-desk, and clerk's desk, one above another; where this has been abolished, and a special stall is provided for the reading of the prayers, the latter is sometimes called the ‘prayer-desk’.
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society > faith > artefacts > furniture > lectern or pulpit > [noun]
lecternc1325
pulpitc1390
desk1449
stage1483
anabathur1623
oratorio1631
ambo1641
tub1644
chair1649
anabathrum1658
minbar1682
ambon1683
hand board1734
rostrum1755
tub-pulpita1791
lutrin1837
prayer desk1843
wood1854
praying desk1906
1449 in J. Nichols Illustr. Antient Times Eng. (1797) 132 Making of pleyn desques and of a pleyne rodelofte.
1552 in W. Money Parish Church Goods Berks. (1879) 32 A old clothe of baulkyn for the dexe.
1565 Harding in J. Strype Ann. Reformation I. App. xxx. 72 Clappe me not they the bare Bible on the dext.
1604 in J. Barmby Churchwardens' Accts. Pittington (1888) 140 For a desk to lay the byble on.
a1640 W. Fenner Christs Alarm (1646) 19 How reverently should yee sit in your Pewes? how sacredly should we stand in our desks?
1653 G. Firmin Sober Reply 28 My friend when he had done preaching..went downe out of the Deske.
1706 A. Bedford Temple Musick iv. 90 Their Singers stood in the Desks.
1785 W. Cowper Task i. 94 Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk, The tedious rector drawling o'er his head.
1809 E. A. Kendall Trav. Northern Parts U.S. I. i. 4 The pulpit, or, as it is here [i.e. in Connecticut] called, the desk was filled by three, if not four clergymen; a number which, by its form and dimensions, it was able to accommodate.
1830 Ld. Tennyson Sonnet to J. M. K. The humming of the drowsy pulpit-drone..while the worn-out clerk Brow-beats his desk below.
1845 J. H. Parker Gloss. Terms Archit. (ed. 4) I. 226 That at Debtling is of Decorated date; it is made with a desk for a book on four sides.
1870 F. R. Wilson Archit. Surv. Churches Lindisfarne 79 The pulpit, litany desk, and stalls are oaken.
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society > faith > artefacts > furniture > seat > [noun]
sitting?a1425
desk1560
stall1580
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > seat > [noun] > other seats
desk1560
seat-arch1703
window seat1715
podium1722
sunkie1788
stab1805
screen1820
porch swing1891
club-fender1915
stuff-over1915
1560 in Edgar Ch. Life Scotl. (1885) I. 15 Neither the dasks, windocks nor duris be ony wise hurt.
1603 in Edgar Ch. Life Scotl. (1885) I. 15 To big ane removabill dask for his wyff.
1678 in Old Church Life Ballingry (1890) II. 20 Fill up with deskes the emptie roomes of the Church.
1701 in Scott. Notes & Queries I. 12 [To farm] the haill dasks in both churches.
1885 A. Edgar Old Church Life Scotl. I. 16 Down to about the middle of the 17th century there were very few desks or seats in Church.
3. figurative.
a. Used typically for the functions or office of the occupant of a desk, esp. in sense 2.
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society > faith > worship > preaching > [noun]
bodingc1000
preachinga1300
sermoninga1300
predicationa1325
preachmentc1330
prophesyingc1520
pulpitingc1540
doctrine1560
prophesying1574
prophecy1577
desk1581
pulpitry1606
predicancy1627
prophecy1631
sermonizing1635
pulpitizing1651
predicament1765
preachery1828
sermonology1854
parsonizing1864
kerygma1889
1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius 108 b Luther doth not take upon him the person of a schoolemaister, nor hath challenged to himselfe the dignitie of high deske, nor ever taught any Schooles of new factions.
a1817 T. Dwight Trav. New-Eng. & N.-Y. (1821) II. 277 He [sc. Dr. Backus, a professor of divinity] educated between forty and fifty for the desk.
1836 W. Andrew Hist. Winterton 107 At a time when the pulpit and reading-desk were generally at variance.
1838 Brit. Critic XXIII. 294 Their tendency is, to exalt the Pulpit too far above the Desk; to make the performance of man the very life and soul of all public worship.
b. Work at the desk in an office, etc.; clerical or office work.
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society > occupation and work > work > [noun] > office or clerical work
office worka1678
desk1796
stool1836
desk-work1864
pencil-pushing1883
pen-pushing1906
1796 E. Burke Two Lett. Peace Regicide Directory France i. 181 Never can they who from the miserable servitude of the desk have been raised to Empire, again submit to the bondage of a starving bureau.
1844 R. W. Emerson Young Amer. in Lect. in Wks. (1906) II. 296 He who merely uses it [the land] as a support to his desk and ledger..values it less.
c. A specified section of a large organization, such as a newspaper office, government department, etc., responsible for a particular subject or operation. Frequently in U.S., the department in a newspaper office where copy is edited. Cf. city desk n. at city n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1927 U. Sinclair Money Writes 18 The reporters who write up the sensational event—each one is hoping to attract the attention of the ‘desk’.
1958 E. Newby Short Walk in Hindu Kush ii. 24 [At] the Foreign Office..I was interviewed by a representative of the Asian Desk.
1966 J. Bingham Double Agent vi. 87 At the table next to Henry Blundell sat little George Patterson, in charge of the East Russian desk... At the same table was Mike Parsons, who worked at the Czech desk.
1970 R. Gadney Drawn Blanc vi. 61 They gave me a desk in Soviet Counter Intelligence, it's a big outfit now.
d. The reception desk or office of a hotel, office building, etc.; the person or persons on duty at the reception desk.
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society > occupation and work > workplace > office > [noun] > reception
desk1963
1963 D. B. Hughes Expendable Man vi. 200 I'll tell the desk not to put through any more calls.
1966 G. Lyall Shooting Script xix. 150 Room 17, I think you said? And the desk knows I'm coming?
1970 P. Bair Tribunal ii. iii. 76 Ask the desk to ring through to Miss Jackson's room.
4. transferred. A meeting of those who occupy the choir desks of a cathedral.
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society > society and the community > social relations > association for a common purpose > meeting or assembling for common purpose > [noun] > a meeting > types of
morn-speechOE
court1154
morrow-speech1183
conventicle1382
congregation1389
plenary session1483
journeyc1500
night school1529
assession1560
general meeting1565
family meeting1638
panegyris1647
desk1691
collegea1703
annual general meeting1725
mass meeting1733
panegyre1757
plenum1772
family council1797
coterie1805
Round Table1830
GA1844
indignation meeting1848
protest meeting1852
hui1858
primary1859
Quaker meeting1861
mothers' meeting1865
sit-down1868
town hall1912
jamboree1919
protest rally1921
con1940
face-to-face1960
morning prayers1961
struggle meeting1966
be-in1967
love-in1967
plenary1969
catch-up1972
rencontre1975
schmoozefest1976
1691 in Macray Catal. Rawl. MSS. D ii. 26 The sub~chanter and vicars [of Lichfield] desire to know whether he wishes to renew the lease..as the matter will be settled at the next meeting, or deske as they call it.
Compounds
C1. General attributive; see also desktop n. and adj.
desk-board n.
ΚΠ
1614 J. Selden Titles of Honor 110 Fastned with long nailes to the deskboards.
desk calendar n.
ΚΠ
1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) p. xxxi/5 Desk Calendar Pads.
1922 F. S. Fitzgerald Beautiful & Damned i. iii. 100 On a desk calendar he marked the days off.
1968 H. C. Rae Few Small Bones ii. i. 71 He ruffled the pages of his desk calendar.
desk-closet n.
ΚΠ
1879 ‘E. Garrett’ House by Wks. I. 62 In the little oak desk-closet at the back of the shop, stood a young woman.
desk diary n.
ΚΠ
1960 T. Hughes Lupercal 52 Outstripping his desk-diary at a broad desk.
1963 L. Deighton Horse under Water xxxii. 125 He flips through the desk and finds a nice leather desk diary.
desk-drudge n.
ΚΠ
1880 R. Browning Clive in Dramatic Idyls 92 Desk-drudge, slaving at St. David's, one must game, or drink, or craze.
desk-fellow n.
ΚΠ
1825 C. Lamb in London Mag. May 70 To visit my old desk-fellows.
desk-gong n.
desk job n.
ΚΠ
1965 ‘R. L. Pike’ Police Blotter (1966) vii. 105 He managed to get a soft desk job in the war.
desk lamp n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > [noun] > lamp > desk lamp
reading lamp1779
desk lamp1896
Anglepoise1935
1896 New Eng. Mag. Nov. (advt.) New designs in Dresden desk lamps.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. ix. [Scylla & Charybdis] 177 Glittereyed, his rufous skull close to his greencapped desklamp sought the face, bearded amid darkgreener shadow, an ollav, holyeyed.
1982 Habitat Catal. 1982–3 106/1 Classical desk lamp with swivelling green metal reflector cowl on a brass stem.
desk-light n.
ΚΠ
1929 E. Wilson I thought of Daisy i. 29 I turned aside the adjustable desk-light..so that it lit only the farther wall.
desk-officer n.
ΚΠ
1885 Public Opinion 9 Jan. 38/2 A scientific and what is popularly known as a desk officer.
C2.
desk-book n. a book for constant use at the desk, a handbook, vade-mecum.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > kind of book > textbook or book of instructions > [noun] > for constant use
desk-book1892
1892 Literary World 22 Jan. 82/3 This desk-book may be highly recommended.
desk-bound adj. obliged to remain at work at a desk.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > worker in specific place > [adjective] > working at a desk
desk-bound1944
1944 Time 24 Apr. 26 Few thought he would be desk-bound for long.
1962 Listener 28 June 1104/2 There were desk-bound jurists who had hatched out theories of crime ‘as remote from reality as they are harmful’.
desk-cloth n. a cloth to cover a reading-desk or lectern.
desk copy n. originally U.S. a free copy of a book, esp. one supplied for the personal use of a teacher.
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society > communication > book > copy > [noun] > other types of copy
fine paper copy1789
review book1796
advance copy1837
reading copy1847
manifold1852
review copy1859
press copy1891
working copy1897
file copy1899
binding copy1936
desk copy1942
ideal copy1949
1942 Amer. Speech 17 121 The teaching profession avoids the appearance of receiving forbidden favors by asking its publishers not for free copies but for desk copies.
1962 Publishers' Weekly 23 Apr. 39/2 Professors when they request ‘desk copies’ frequently also order books..for their own libraries.
desk-knife n. a pen-knife with fixed handle, an eraser.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > cutting tool > knife > [noun] > penknife
penknifea1425
desk-knife1833
Swiss Army knife1935
1833 J. Holland Treat. Manuf. Metal II. 9 Pen-knives..fastened into the hafts, in the manner of what are now called desk-knives.
desk-man n. (a) a minister, clergyman, or preacher; (b) a man who works at a desk, spec. a journalist who works mainly at a desk; a white-collar worker.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > non-manual worker > [noun] > office worker
office worker1856
desk-man1893
office man1921
1893 K. Grahame Pagan Ess. 105 The Desk-men have a temporary majority.
1913 Writer's Bull. Oct. 101/1 The salaries paid..are..better than those paid to many ‘desk men’ in the offices of large newspapers.
1925 A. S. M. Hutchinson One Increasing Purpose i. xxx. 181 The city desk-man's feeble stoop.
1961 Times 8 Feb. 13/7 Millions of deskmen from an inflated officialdom have been out in the fields helping the peasants.
1967 R. J. Serling President's Plane is Missing (1968) viii. 142 The IPS bureau chief was regarded as a superb deskman and a skilled writer.
desk-room n. originally U.S. space for a desk rented in a business office.
ΚΠ
1868 R. B. Kimball Undercurrents 9 I occupied an office—no, I had ‘desk-room’ in a basement office.
1870 J. K. Medbery Men & Myst. Wall St. 117 Many of the operators, as well as the smaller brokers,..have simply desk-room.
1926 R. Kipling Debits & Credits 337 Our War-side merely applied for desk-room in your basement.
desk sergeant n. U.S. = station sergeant n. at station n. Compounds 2.
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society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman > policeman of specific rank
superintendent1789
police inspector1824
police sergeant1824
sergeant1839
inspector1840
station sergeant1846
detective-sergeant1850
detective-inspector1898
desk sergeant1908
sarge1926
skipper1929
supe1977
1908 K. McGaffey Sorrows of Show Girl 89 All he got was a clout on the head from the desk sergeant.
1967 Punch 19 July 85/3 The rich having their three dollars whipped off them by the desk-sergeant and put in an envelope.
desk-work n. work at a desk, as clerk, book-keeper, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > work > [noun] > office or clerical work
office worka1678
desk1796
stool1836
desk-work1864
pencil-pushing1883
pen-pushing1906
1864 Ld. Tennyson Sea Dreams 78 A dozen years Of dust and deskwork.
Draft additions 1993
desk dictionary n. chiefly North American (originally U.S.) a one-volume dictionary of medium size, suited for use on a desk for general reference.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > kind of book > reference book > [noun] > encyclopaedia
thesaurary1592
magazine1639
encyclopaedia1644
enciclopaidion1693
cyclopaedia1728
cyclopede1778
pantology1813
thesaurus1840
collegiate dictionary1872
collegiate1898
desk dictionary1948
learner's dictionary1948
megabook1990
1915 J. C. Fernald (title) The desk standard dictionary of the English language; designed to give the orthography, pronunciation, meaning, and etymology of about 80,000 words and phrases.]
1948 New Republic 2 Feb. 27/1 Almost all the desk dictionaries have come to resemble one another.
1961 Bay & Wendell in J. Barzun Delights of Detection 265 Four or five novels..and..a desk dictionary.
1982 Papers Dict. Soc. N. Amer. 1977 34 There are two other vowel distinctions that are made by W8 but not by other desk dictionaries.
Draft additions August 2004
desk jockey n. [ < desk n. + jockey n., after disc jockey n.] colloquial (originally U.S.) a person who works at a desk; an office worker, esp. one chiefly occupied with routine, unimportant administrative duties.
ΚΠ
1943 Washington Post 22 Apr. b1/1 He said the farmers had been denied a few dollars and now we are proposing to give $300 apiece to a ‘bunch of desk jockeys’.
1968 K. H. Cooper Aerobics 38 This category catches all the do-nothings, the desk jockeys, the TV watchers, the over-eaters, the over-smokers.
2001 N.Y. Mag. 1 Oct. 28/1 Ganci was no desk jockey. His uniform shirt was crusted with medals for pulling people out of burning buildings.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† deskv.
Obsolete.
1. transitive. To fit up or furnish with desks.
ΚΠ
a1509 King Henry VII. Will in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) I. 498 That the said Chapell be desked.
2. To place in or as in a desk.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > placing or fact of being placed in (a) position > insertion or putting in > insert or put in [verb (transitive)] > into or as into other specific receptacles
sackc1405
pokea1425
pipe1465
barrel1466
cask1562
bag1570
vessel1577
basket1582
crock1594
cade1599
maund1604
impoke1611
incask1611
inflask1611
insatchel1611
desk1615
pot1626
cooper1746
kit1769
vat1784
pannier1804
vial1805
flask1855
tub1889
ampoule1946
1615 T. Tomkis Albumazar i. iii. sig. B4 A leafe of that small Iliade That in a wall-nut shell was desk't.
1647 J. Hall Poems i. 2 Then are you entertaind, and deskt up by Our Ladies Psalter and the Rosary.
1670 S. Wilson Lassels's Voy. Italy (new ed.) ii. 164 I..saw many curious relicks desked vp in the side of the wall.
3. to desk it: to work at a desk, do clerical work.Apparently an isolated use.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > working > [verb (intransitive)] > do clerical work
to desk it1846
office1892
secretary1933
1846 J. Mackintosh Let. in Mem. (1854) 109 I have been busy, sometimes desking it 13 to 15 hours per diem.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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