# desk

Pronunciation: say "DESK" /dɛsk/

## Noun

1. A table or case, usually with a flat top (and in earlier centuries a sloping one), used for writing or reading, often with a drawer underneath.
   - Simple: A piece of furniture with a flat top where you write, read, or work, often with drawers underneath.
   - _He kept old letters locked in the drawer of his desk._
   - _Antique desks with sloping tops fetch high prices at auction._
2. A department within certain businesses, such as newspapers or financial trading firms, responsible for a particular topic or area.
   - Simple: A part of a company, such as a newspaper or trading firm, that handles one topic or job.
   - _The foreign desk assigned three reporters to cover the election._
   - _Rumors spread quickly across the firm's trading desks during the crisis._
3. A reading table or lectern supporting the book from which a liturgical service is read, distinct from the pulpit used for the sermon; in the United States, also the pulpit itself.
   - Simple: A stand that holds the book read aloud during a church service. In some places it can also mean the pulpit.
   - _The lector read the lesson from the desk while the priest waited by the altar._
   - _In many American churches the preacher addresses the congregation from the desk itself._
4. A station for a string player in an orchestra, made up of a chair and a music stand, or a row of stations.
   - Simple: In an orchestra, a seat with a music stand where a string player sits, often shared by two players.
   - _The conductor asked the back desk of cellos to play more softly._
   - _Two violinists share every desk in the string section._
5. Ellipsis of mixing desk. — Ellipsis of mixing desk.
   - Simple: Short form of mixing desk. It means the board used to control sound levels during a recording or show.
   - _The sound engineer ran the whole concert from a single desk._
   - _He bought a secondhand eight-channel desk for his home recording studio._

## Verb

6. To furnish a person, room, or workplace with a desk or desks.
   - Simple: To give a person, room, or workplace a desk or desks to work at.
   - _The company desked all its remote workers when they returned to the building._
   - _We need to desk the new hires before Monday._
7. To reject a manuscript submitted to a journal, newspaper, or similar publication at the editor's first look, without sending it on for review.
   - Simple: To turn down an article sent to a newspaper or journal right away, without reading it fully.
   - _Senior editors desk most submissions before they ever reach a reviewer._
   - _The journal desked the paper without any explanation._
8. To shut something away, as in a desk, and so to keep it carefully or treasure it.
   - Simple: To lock something away in a desk, or to keep it as something precious.
   - _She desked the old love letters where no one would find them._
   - _Misers desk their gold and gloat over it in secret._

## Origin

From Middle English 'deske', from Medieval Latin 'desca', modified from Old Italian 'desco', ultimately from Latin 'discus'. It is a doublet of words like dais, disc, discus, dish, and disk.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/desk (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).