desktop

Pluraldesktops

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A computer built to sit on or beside a desk in a fixed location, rather than be carried.

   She replaced her aging desktop with a faster model last spring.

   Many gamers prefer a desktop because it is easier to upgrade.

   Oppositelaptop

   Note

   A clipped form: desktop computer shortened to its first word and used as an everyday noun. Its natural foil is the laptop, and the two are routinely weighed against each other on price or power. The contrast is about where the machine lives, fixed on a desk or carried around, not about who uses it. That distinction belongs to the "personal computer" meaning.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The main graphical interface of an operating system, usually showing icons, windows, and a background image.

   She arranged her project folders neatly across the desktop.

   A cluttered desktop full of icons can slow down your workflow.

   Note

   A metaphor that stuck: the screen is pictured as a work surface, with icons and windows resting on it the way papers rest on the top of a real desk. The picture runs through the vocabulary of interfaces. Linda Mui and Valerie Quercia's X User Tools (1994) describes menus you can pin up and keep on your desktop. Things sit on the desktop, and new applications add their icons to it.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The flat upper working surface of a desk, where items are placed or written on.

   He cleared the desktop before laying out the blueprints.

   The polished wooden desktop showed every fingerprint.

   Similarsurface, top

   Note

   The literal compound behind every other sense: desk plus top, the surface you actually work on. The computer senses borrow its picture, most vividly the on-screen workspace, where files and windows lie about like papers. In furniture talk the word points to the surface itself, not the drawers or legs, which is why you clear a desktop but empty a desk.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of an app or website, made to run or be viewed on a personal computer rather than a mobile device.

   Designers built a desktop layout with wider menus and a sidebar.

   The desktop site loads more tools than its mobile counterpart.

   Oppositemobile

   Note

   The software-and-web adjective, defined against mobile: a desktop browser, a desktop site, the desktop version of an app. It comes before its noun and has no degrees, since nothing is more desktop than something else. Keep it apart from the furniture adjective. A desktop fan sits on a desk, while a desktop site only assumes a computer screen.

5. 5
   adjective

   Made to be used on top of a desk or similar piece of furniture.

   A desktop fan kept the cluttered workspace cool.

   He prefers a desktop calendar to a wall-mounted one.

   Similartabletop

   Oppositewall-mounted

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A personal computer for individual use, rather than one built for business or server roles.

   For ordinary home tasks, a desktop is far cheaper than enterprise hardware.

   She chose a desktop over a server because she only needed it for personal projects.

   SimilarPC

   Oppositeserver

   Note

   Here the line is drawn by role rather than by portability. A machine for one person's own work is set against servers and business systems. Context usually shows which contrast is meant: desktop versus server here, desktop versus laptop in the stationary-computer meaning. When the difference matters, personal computer is the clearer phrase.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   The background image displayed behind the icons and windows of the main computer interface.

   He picked a calming forest scene for his desktop.

   Every Monday she swaps her desktop for a fresh photograph.

   Similarwallpaper, background

   Note

   A synecdoche: the name of the whole interface is stretched to cover its backdrop, so changing your desktop usually means changing the picture. Context separates it from the interface itself. Clearing the desktop removes icons, while choosing a new desktop swaps only the image behind them.

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