detailed

1. 1
   adjective

   Marked by close attention to small particulars and thorough treatment of the subject.

   The inspector submitted a detailed account of the building's faults.

   We received detailed instructions for assembling the cabinet.

   Similarthorough, comprehensive, in-depth, exhaustive, full

   Oppositevague, sketchy, brief, general

   Note

   A participial adjective that behaves like any ordinary gradable one: it compares with more and most (more detailed, most detailed) and readily takes intensifiers, as in highly detailed. Report, explanation and account are its natural partners. When the word describes an action rather than a quality, as in the report detailed the costs, it is the past form of the verb instead.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of detail.

   The manual detailed the safety checks required before each flight.

   Auditors detailed several errors in the company's accounts.

   Note

   Three different transitive verbs share this past form. A report detailed the costs, explaining them point by point. A car was detailed, meaning cleaned with great care; in this sense the word is always pronounced /ˈdiːteɪl/, stressed on the first syllable. A soldier was detailed to guard the gate, meaning assigned to a task. Because all three take an object, each forms a passive easily.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2