1. A table, frame, or case, usually with sloping top, but often with flat top, for the use writers and readers. It often has a drawer or repository underneath.
2. A reading table or lectern to support the book from which the liturgical service is read, differing from the pulpit from which the sermon is preached; also (esp. in the United States), a pulpit. Hence, used symbolically for "the clerical profession."
DESK
Desk, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Desked; p. pr. & vb. n. Desking.]
Defn: To shut up, as in a desk; to treasure.
DESKWORK
Desk"work`, n.
Defn: Work done at a desk, as by a clerk or writer. Tennyson.
DESMAN
Des"man, n. Etym: [Cf. Sw. desman musk.] (Zoöl.)
Defn: An amphibious, insectivorous mammal found in Russia (Myogale moschata). It is allied to the moles, but is called muscrat by some English writers. [Written also dæsman.]
DESMID; DESMIDIAN
Des"mid, Des*mid"i*an, n. Etym: [Gr. (Bot.)
Defn: A microscopic plant of the family Desmidiæ, a group of unicellular algæ in which the species have a greenish color, and the cells generally appear as if they consisted of two coalescing halves.