displacementn.

1803 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. 1 320 Change of air, removal, displacement, seem to be efficient remedies.

1840 A. Tweedie Syst. Pract. Med. III. 380 When the displacement is very considerable, the functions of the heart may be much embarrassed.

1863 A. W. Kinglake Invasion of Crimea I. xv. 332 Occasioned by some accidental displacement of words.

1880 S. Haughton Six Lect. Physical Geogr. ii. 46 (note) A vertical displacement of the strata.

1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. iii. iv. 195 The displacement of the sun by parallax is so small that [etc.].

1879 W. Thomson & P. G. Tait Treat. Nat. Philos. (new ed.) I: Pt. i. §90 We may consider the whole motion as made up of successive elementary displacements.

1871 B. Stewart Heat (ed. 2) §22 It is found that thermometers are liable to an alteration of their zero points, especially when the bulb has been filled not long before graduation..This displacement may in the course of years amount to about 1° C.

1873 J. C. Maxwell Treat. Electr. & Magnetism I. i. 60 The electric polarization of an elementary portion of a dielectric is a forced state into which the medium is thrown by the action of electromotive force, and which disappears when that force is removed. We may conceive it to consist in what we may call an electrical displacement, produced by the electromotive force.

1885 H. W. Watson & S. H. Burbury Math. Theory Electr. & Magn. I. §258.

1895 S. P. Thompson Elem. Lessons Electr. & Magn. §57 Displacement. Whenever electric forces act on a dielectric, tending to drive electricity in at one side and out at the other..the quantity of electricity which has apparently been transferred..was called by Maxwell ‘the displacement’.

1895 S. P. Thompson Elem. Lessons Electr. & Magn. §516 Experiment proves that displacement-currents, while they last, set up magnetic fields around them; just as connexion-currents and conduction-currents do.

1904 T. Preston Theory of Heat (ed. 2) vi. 600 This important equation expresses the fact that if radiation of a particular wave-length corresponding to a definite temperature is adiabatically altered to another wave-length, then the temperature changes in the inverse ratio. This is known as Wien's displacement law.

1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 561/1 Perhaps the most comprehensive connexion of spectra with the periodic table is established by the ‘displacement law’ of Kossel and Sommerfeld... The displacement law states that, when an element is ionized, the enhanced series take on the same type of complexity as the arc series produced by the element to the left (i.e. in the preceding group) in the periodic table.

1926 R. W. Lawson tr. G. von Hevesy & F. A. Paneth Man. Radioactivity xiii. 114 In this way we obtain the following ‘displacement law’: The emission of α particles by an element results in the production of an element situated two places lower down in the natural sequence of the elements, whereas when the disintegrating element emits β-rays, an element is produced which is situated one place higher in the system.

1927 Rutherford in Proc. Physical Soc. 39 360 This generalisation, known as the Displacement Law, first put forward in general form by Russell, Fajans and Soddy, gives us at once the nuclear charge and mass of each element in the radioactive series, and thus fixes the ordinary physical and chemical properties of each radioactive element, as well as its atomic weight.

1968 M. S. Livingston Particle Physics ii. 16 Soddy and others established the displacement law.

1913 A. A. Brill tr. S. Freud Interpretation of Dreams vi. 286 The result of this displacement is that the dream content no longer resembles the core of the dream thoughts at all.

1913 A. A. Brill tr. S. Freud Interpretation of Dreams vi. 402 The dream activity makes use of the displacement of psychic intensities up to the transvaluation of all psychic values.

1955 H. C. Abraham tr. K. Abraham Clin. Papers iii. vii. 189 We should be straining the facts if we attempted to make an artificial separation between displacement and secondary elaboration.

1962 D. K. Henderson & R. D. Gillespie Text-bk. Psychiatry (ed. 9) vii. 128 Displacement consists in the transfer of the emotional setting of one idea to some other apparently insignificant idea.

1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 204/1 ‘Fiddling’ with objects such as pencils is a masturbation substitute or displacement.

1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 204/2 In social psychology the concept displacement has been used with respect to the hostility expressed toward minority groups.

1947 E. A. Armstrong Bird Display & Behaviour ii. 36 Toying with odds and ends may be regarded as..providing emotional outlets. They are ‘displacement’ or substitute activities, common enough in human life.

1947 E. A. Armstrong Bird Display & Behaviour viii. 106 ‘Displacement’ activities will be regarded as a special type within the larger class of false activities.

1951 N. Tinbergen Stud. Instinct v. 114 It is a striking fact that displacement activities often occur in a situation in which the fighting drive and the drive to escape are both activated.

1951 N. Tinbergen Stud. Instinct v. 116 Herring gulls and many other birds..feed their mates during courtship; it is not at all improbable that this..is displacement feeding.

1951 N. Tinbergen Stud. Instinct v. 117 If male sticklebacks are forced to nest very closely together, they will show nearly continuous displacement digging.

1951 N. Tinbergen Stud. Instinct viii. 210 In man learned patterns, like lighting a cigarette, handling keys or handkerchief, &c., often act as displacement activities.

1957 New Scientist 26 Sept. 42 Displacement activities usually result from a conflict between two strongly activated but antagonistic drives, or from strong motivation, usually sexual, in the absence of the necessary stimulus required for the release of the consummatory act.

1962 Listener 2 Aug. 169/1 Many such irrelevant actions are known in animals. Dr Tinbergen has called them ‘displacement activities’. They are seen in conflict situations, where an animal's automatic behaviour mechanisms cannot work smoothly in its current environment.

1962 Listener 2 Aug. 169/2 Human displacement activities are not easily catalogued.

1869 W. E. Gladstone Juventus Mundi iii. 100 There must have been a great displacement of the Pelasgic vocabulary.

1880 Libr. Universal Knowl. IX. 297 The displacement of human labor through..machinery.

1816 A. Rees Cycl. (1819) XXXII. at Shipbuilding To ascertain the centre of displacement, or centre of gravity, of the immersed part of a ship's bottom.

1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. xiii. 190 He was always talking about centres of gravity, displacement of fluid, and Lord knows what.

1869 E. J. Reed Our Iron-clad Ships iv. 71 The dimensions and outside form of a ship determine her displacement.

1876 W. H. G. Kingston Hist. Brit. Navy 535 Her total length is 320 feet..with a displacement of 11,407 tons.

1935 C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 263/1 Displacement, the mass of air displaced by the gas in an aerostat.

1883 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Displacement..In Pharmacy, the term is used in the same sense as Percolation..D. apparatus, a means of obtaining extracts, whether aqueous or alcoholic. The body is pulverised, and then partially exhausted with a liquid, which is replaced by an additional quantity of the same, or of another liquid.

1869 M. T. Masters Veg. Teratol. 89 Instances of displacement of leaves arising from suppression.