deploy

Formsdeploys, deploying, deployed

Pluraldeploys

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To prepare and arrange something, originally troops, so that it stands ready for use.

   Commanders deploy their reserves only when the front line weakens.

   The company deployed a team of engineers to fix the outage.

   Similardispatch, send, position, station, mobilize

   Oppositewithdraw, recall

   Note

   Troops can be deployed, and troops can simply deploy. The verb works both ways with no change of meaning, as in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Francesca Carrara (1834), where "the guards deployed round" the halted carriage. Its roots in arraying troops still shape it. It suits plural, arrangeable things: units, lifeguards, or a teacher's range of classroom resources.

2. 2
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To unfold, open, or otherwise spread out into a ready state, or to be brought into such a state.

   Crews deploy the inflatable barrier before any oil reaches the shore.

   The satellite's solar panels deploy automatically once it reaches orbit.

   Similarunfold, open, extend, spread, inflate

   Oppositeretract, fold, stow

   Note

   Here the word stays closest to its roots. It comes from French déployer, "to unroll, unfold," and ultimately from Latin dis- "apart" and plicare "to fold," which makes it a doublet of display. Parachutes and airbags deploy by themselves, or someone deploys them. In John Branch's "Snow Fall" (2012), a skier fears she overreacted by deploying her air bag.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To install, test, and put a computer system or application into active use.

   Developers deploy the latest build to the staging server before release.

   The company deployed its new payroll software across every branch.

   Similarinstall, release, implement, launch, push

   Oppositeuninstall, decommission

   Note

   What gets deployed in computing is software or an image of it, and its destination follows a preposition. You deploy an image onto a destination computer, or a build to a staging server. The verb covers the whole passage from a finished build to a working installation, which is why it often appears beside building and imaging steps in a setup process.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   An instance of installing and releasing a software system into active use; a deployment.

   The Friday deploy introduced a bug that took hours to trace.

   Each deploy is logged so the team can roll back quickly.

   Similarrelease, rollout, push

   Oppositerollback

   Note

   Engineers' shorthand turns the verb itself into a countable noun where fuller prose would say deployment. A deploy can be bad, logged or rolled back. In James Shore and Shane Warden's The Art of Agile Development (2021), rolling back the bad deploy fixes the immediate production problem. It belongs to team talk and technical writing, and deployment remains the neutral choice elsewhere.

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