From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
display
n 1: something intended to communicate a particular impression;
"made a display of strength"; "a show of impatience"; "a
good show of looking interested" [syn: show]
2: something shown to the public; "the museum had many exhibits
of oriental art" [syn: exhibit, showing]
3: an electronic device that represents information in visual
form
4: a visual representation of something [syn: presentation]
5: behavior that makes your feelings public; "a display of
emotion"
6: exhibiting openly in public view; "a display of courage"
v 1: to show, make visible or apparent; "The Metropolitan Museum
is exhibiting Goya's works this month"; "Why don't you
show your nice legs and wear shorter skirts?"; "National
leaders will have to display the highest skills of
statesmanship" [syn: expose, exhibit]
2: make clear and visible; "The article revealed the policies
of the government" [syn: reveal, show]
3: attract attention by displaying some body part or posing; of
animals
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Display \Dis*play"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Displayed; p. pr. &
vb. n. Displaying.] [OE. displaien, desplaien, OF.
despleier, desploier, F. d['e]ployer; pref. des- (L. dis-) +
pleier, ploier, plier, F. ployer, plier, to fold, bend, L.
plicare. See Ply, and cf. Deploy, Splay.]
1. To unfold; to spread wide; to expand; to stretch out; to
spread.
[1913 Webster]
The northern wind his wings did broad display.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Mil.) To extend the front of (a column), bringing it into
line. --Farrow.
[1913 Webster]
3. To spread before the view; to show; to exhibit to the
sight, or to the mind; to make manifest.
[1913 Webster]
His statement . . . displays very clearly the actual
condition of the army. --Burke.
[1913 Webster]
4. To make an exhibition of; to set in view conspicuously or
ostentatiously; to exhibit for the sake of publicity; to
parade.
[1913 Webster]
Proudly displaying the insignia of their order.
--Prescott.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Print.) To make conspicuous by large or prominent type.
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6. To discover; to descry. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
And from his seat took pleasure to display
The city so adorned with towers. --Chapman.
7. (Computers) To output (results or data) in a visible
manner on the screen of a monitor, CRT, or other device.
[PJC]
Syn: To exhibit; show; manifest; spread out; parade; expand;
flaunt.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Display \Dis*play"\, v. i.
To make a display; to act as one making a show or
demonstration. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Display \Dis*play"\, n.
1. An opening or unfolding; exhibition; manifestation.
[1913 Webster]
Having witnessed displays of his power and grace.
--Trench.
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2. Ostentatious show; exhibition for effect; parade.
[1913 Webster]
He died, as erring man should die,
Without display, without parade. --Byron.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Electronics) An electronic device on which the output
signal of another electronic device may be presented in a
visual form; -- also called display device. Typically
the display device it is the screen of a cathode-ray tube,
as in a computer monitor, but other forms of visual
display such as LED or liquid crystal devices are also
used. The printed output from a computer or other device
is not considered as a display.
[PJC]
4. (Computers) The output signal from a computer program,
displayed on a display device. The displayed signal may
consist of letters, numbers, or any graphical image.
[PJC]
5. (Biology) a pattern of behavior, such as showing a body
part to another animal, by which one animal conveys
information to another, as for mating or defense.
[PJC]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
display
1. <hardware> monitor.
2. <language> A vector of pointers to activation records.
The Nth element points to the activation record containing
variables declared at lexical depth N. This allows faster
access to variables from outer scopes than the alternative
of linked activation records (but most variable accesses are
either local or global or occasionally to the immediately
enclosing scope). Displays were used in some ALGOL
implementations.
(1996-02-22)