displays

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of display.

   The gallery rotated its displays every few months.

   Holiday displays lit up the entire downtown.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of the noun: window arrangements, exhibitions, screens on a desk or dashboard. When display names the act of showing in general, used as an uncountable noun, it has no plural and stays singular. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb form. A determiner such as the or these in front of it marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of display.

   The peacock displays its feathers to attract a mate.

   This software displays errors in a separate window.

   Note

   Most often it takes an object: a screen displays errors, a shop displays goods. It can also stand alone, meaning to put on a show, so in a sentence like the male bird displays nothing needs to follow the verb. In older writing it can mean spreads out or unfurls, a sense now obsolete, and a dated printing use means sets in large, prominent type.

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