console

Formsconsoles, consoling, consoled

Pluralconsoles

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To comfort someone in a time of grief, disappointment, or other distress.

   Neighbors came by all week to console the family after the funeral.

   He consoled himself with the thought that the next race was only a month away.

   Similarcomfort, soothe, cheer, solace

   Note

   The verb came in separately, from French consoler and Latin consolor, "I offer solace," and its root also gave English solace. It often names what does the comforting: in Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary (1922) a character is "consoled by the reflection that her reasoning had been justified," and people console themselves with a thought.

2. 2
   nounabbreviation

   Short for video game console.

   I play most racing games on a console these days instead of my laptop.

   The company plans to release its next console in time for the holidays.

   Note

   The clipped form is the everyday name for the machine, usually one hooked up to a television. Its natural rival is the PC, as in Greg Howson's 2010 question, "Are consoles really better than PCs at shooter games?" In the plural it names the whole category, which is how consoles can gain traction in the video game market.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A cabinet, table, or stand shaped like a desk, with controls, instruments, and displays mounted on it.

   The pilots' console was a wide steel desk crowded with dials and switches.

   Workers bolted the new console to the control-room floor before wiring the instruments into it.

   Similarpanel

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A storage tray or compartment fitted between the seats of a car.

   Could you grab my sunglasses out of the center console?

   The new SUV has a deep console between the front seats with room for a laptop.

   Note

   In a car the word usually travels as center console, spelled centre console in British English, for the unit between the front seats where a phone or sunglasses get dropped. Said alone, console is clear once the car is the topic; otherwise the full phrase keeps it from being heard as the games machine.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The keyboard and screen of a computer or similar electronic device, taken together.

   Error messages scrolled across the server's console all night.

   She left the console unlocked when she went to lunch, so anyone could have typed commands.

   Similarterminal

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A control station combining screens and an input device, from which an operator monitors and runs an electronic system.

   From a single console, one operator controls every signal on this stretch of track.

   The flight director followed the launch on a console showing the rocket's speed and fuel pressure.

   Similarterminal

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A freestanding cabinet made to stand on the floor, especially one with a television, stereo, or other home entertainment equipment built in.

   The movie's soundtrack boomed from the console in the corner of the den.

   They sold the walnut stereo console at a yard sale, record player and all.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   An ornamental bracket or projecting support jutting from a wall to carry a weight above it, often S-shaped.

   Carved stone consoles hold up the balcony above the front entrance.

   A single console, curled like an S, supports the heavy marble shelf over the fireplace.

   Similarbracket, corbel

   Note

   This is the meaning the noun arrived with: French console, a bracket, from consoler, "to comfort," the source of the verb. The bracket may have earned the name by easing a wall's load, or because brackets were carved with a Christian figure of a consoler. In building it is a support that is also an ornament, often scrolled into an S, and it can stand for a cantilever.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A decorative frame or support surrounding a heraldic shield, whether carved on a building, drawn, or otherwise depicted.

   Above the chapel door, the family's arms sit on a carved console flanked by two angels.

   The illuminator placed the bishop's shield on an elaborate gilded console at the top of the page.

   Note

   Writers on heraldry also call it an armorial console. It may come with supporters, like the two winged putti Allan Marquand describes in Robbia Heraldry (1919), and because it is carved into a building or painted on a page it can outlast other records: a console in Jacques Coeur's chapel is the only authentic reference left for one shield's tincture.

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