detail

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A part small enough to escape casual notice.

   • Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.
   • We missed several important details in the contract.
   • attention to detail
2. 2

   A profusion of details.

   • This etching is full of fine detail.
3. 3

   The small parts that can escape casual notice.

   • Attention to detail was said to be one of the secrets of Gerrard's success as a player.
4. ›+ 9 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A part considered trivial enough to ignore.

      • I don't concern myself with the details of accounting.
      • Safety at work is not a mere detail.
   2. 5

      A person's name, address and other personal information.

      • The arresting officer asked the suspect for his details.
   3. 6

      A temporary unit or assignment.

      • Frequently members of the small police detail dispatched to the scene joined in.
   4. 7

      An individual feature, fact, or other item, considered separately from the whole of which…

      An individual feature, fact, or other item, considered separately from the whole of which it is a part.

   5. 8

      A narrative which relates minute points

      A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.

      • "I could never persuade myself to confide in him that event which was so often present to my recollection, but which I feared the detail to another would only impress more deeply."
   6. 9

      A selected portion of a painting.

      • On the cover of Julia Kristeva's Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia is a detail from a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, “Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Elizabeth Binzenstock, and Her Two Children, Philip and Catherine.”
      • Shrubbery and the hand of Christ (detail of plate 12)
      • Eight years later, the outstanding exponent of Memory Painting was herself publicly commemorated by a six-cent postage stamp showing a detail from one of her most patriotic works, July Fourth (1951).
   7. 10

      To explain in detail.

      • I'll detail the exact procedure to you later.
   8. 11

      To clean carefully (particularly of road vehicles, always pronounced /ˈdiːteɪl/)

      • We need to have the minivan detailed.
   9. 12

      To assign to a particular task.

The neighborhood

• neighbortailor
• neighbortally
• neighbordeets
• neighboroverview
• neighborbird's-eye view
• neighborbig picture