Definition

1. Noun:
   • The act of moving something from its usual or proper place: The physical act of causing something to change its position or location.
   • The condition of being displaced: The state resulting from being forced to leave one's home, country, or usual environment.
   • The volume or weight of a fluid displaced by a floating or submerged object: A principle in physics and naval architecture, often referring to the weight of water a ship pushes aside.
   • (Psychology) A defense mechanism: The unconscious transfer of an intense emotion from its original object to a safer or more acceptable substitute.
   • (Chemistry) A type of reaction: A chemical reaction where an element is removed from a compound and replaced by another element.

Examples of Usage

• General Usage:
  • The earthquake caused the displacement of several large boulders. (The earthquake moved the boulders from their original positions.)
  • The war led to the displacement of thousands of civilians. (The war forced thousands of civilians to leave their homes.)
• Technical/Scientific Usage:
  • The ship's displacement is 50,000 tons. (The ship weighs as much as 50,000 tons of water it displaces.)
  • In therapy, he discussed his displacement of anger from his boss onto his family. (He talked about redirecting his anger from his boss to his family.)
  • The reaction is a single displacement, where zinc displaces copper in the solution. (Zinc replaces copper in the chemical compound.)

Advanced Usage

• "Center of displacement": In naval architecture, the center of gravity of the volume of displaced water.
• "Angular displacement": In physics, the angle through which a point or line has been rotated in a specified sense about a specified axis.
• "Displacement activity": In psychology/ethology, an irrelevant activity performed in a situation of conflict or stress (e.g., scratching one's head when anxious).

Variants and Related Words

• Displace (verb): To move or force from the usual place or position; to take the place of.
  • The new manager will displace the current one.
• Displaced person (noun phrase): A person who is forced to leave their home country, often a refugee.
• Displacement tonnage (noun phrase): The weight of water displaced by a ship, a measure of the ship's size.

Synonyms

• Relocation: The action of moving to a new place.
• Supplanting: The act of taking the place of another, often by force or strategy.
• Transferal: The process of moving something or someone from one place to another.

Related Phrases

• "Displacement hull": A type of boat hull that moves through the water by pushing it aside, rather than planing on top of it.
• "Displacement current": (Physics) A quantity appearing in Maxwell's equations that is defined in terms of the rate of change of electric displacement field.

Related Idioms

• "A drop in the ocean": While not a direct idiom for displacement, this phrase can relate to the concept of something being insignificant compared to the volume displaced, highlighting a small part of a much larger whole.

Noun

1. act of removing from office or employment
2. to move something from its natural environment
3. (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original object to some more acceptable one
4. (chemistry) a reaction in which an elementary substance displaces and sets free a constituent element from a compound
5. the act of uniform movement
6. an event in which something is displaced without rotation
7. act of taking the place of another especially using underhanded tactics