dislocation
/ˌdɪslə(ʊ)ˈkeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1Disturbance from a proper, original, or usual place or state: rapid urban and industrial development brought immense social dislocation in its wake...
- Ultimately, most crime arises not from greedy human nature, but from privation and the social dislocation that accompanies it.
- All these changes threaten social dislocation, hitting the poorest and most vulnerable hardest.
- Social dislocation generated not only uncertainty, but a large and powerful black market.
1.1Injury or disability caused when the normal position of a joint or other part of the body is disturbed: congenital dislocation of the hip [count noun]: dealing with fractures and dislocations...
- This patient had walked all her life without hip joints as the result of untreated congenital dislocation of both hip joints.
- A plain film of the right calf was negative for fracture, dislocation or radiopaque foreign bodies.
- It may be particularly useful in the pediatric population for diagnosis of hip joint subluxation and dislocation.
1.2 [count noun] Crystallography A displacement of part of a crystal lattice structure: dislocations are present due to the accidents of imperfect growth...
- Trapped dislocations in the crystal lattice were observed even when the average grain size was as small as 10 nanometers.
- This zero intensity point is equivalent to a dislocation on a crystal lattice.
- There are dislocations in the crystalline structure which contain free silver ions, known as sensitivity centers.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, or from medieval Latin dislocatio(n-), from the verb dislocare (see dislocate), based on Latin locare 'to place'.