deployment
Pluraldeployments
- 1The act of implementing something or putting it into active use.
The company's deployment of renewable energy systems reduced its operating costs significantly.
Successful deployment of the policy required months of careful planning.
Similarimplementation, rollout, introduction, installation, application
Oppositewithdrawal
- 2The distribution of military forces, especially in preparation for battle.
Satellite images revealed the deployment of armored units across the valley.
Commanders debated the deployment of reserves in the hours before dawn.
Similarpositioning, disposition, stationing, distribution, arrangement
Oppositewithdrawal, demobilization, pullout
Note
Two scales of the military word sit side by side. H. L. Scott's Military Dictionary (1861) uses it for how troops are arranged on the field, warning against deployments that turn a soldier's back to the enemy. Modern reporting uses it for sending forces somewhere and keeping them there: a troop deployment, a permanent foreign deployment, a deployment of 700 marines later withdrawn. In both, the noun is countable and the plural is common.
- 3Ellipsis of software deployment.
Each deployment runs through an automated set of tests before going live.
The engineers paused the deployment after spotting an error in the logs.
Note
Engineers drop the word software and let the bare noun carry the whole job: all the activities that make software ready for use, including installation on servers. It builds working compounds such as deployment window and staged deployment. In a staged deployment, an update reaches groups of machines in turn rather than all at once. Emergency fixes often skip staging because their window is too short.
- 4The way in which a set of things is arranged or sorted into classes.
The essay's deployment of evidence built steadily toward its conclusion.
Critics praised the novel's clever deployment of recurring symbols.
Similaruse, arrangement, handling, organization
- 5The start or beginning of something.
The deployment of the canopy slowed her descent sharply.
Instructors stressed checking altitude before deployment of the reserve chute.
Similaropening, release, unfolding
Note
Skydivers use the word for the moment the parachute opens, not for any beginning in general: deployment of the canopy, deployment of the reserve. A ripcord or static line sets it off at a chosen altitude. With paratroopers, it is easy to confuse with the military sense. One is the chute opening; the other is troops being placed.
Practice
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Origin
From French déploiement, and also analyzable as de- combined with ployment.