Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A disk, typically wooden, plastic, or rubber with a metal rim, that is thrown for distance in athletic competitions.
  • noun A track-and-field event in which a discus is thrown.
  • noun Any of several small colorful South American freshwater fish of the genus Symphysodon that have a disk-shaped body and are popular in home aquariums.
  • noun Something resembling a flat circular plate; a disk.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In classical antiquity, a circular piece of stone or plate of metal, about 12 inches in diameter, pitched from a fixed point to the greatest possible distance, as a gymnastic exercise and as an athletic contest.
  • noun In anatomy, physical, zoology, and botany, a disk of any kind.
  • noun [capitalized] In zoöl.: A genus of mollusks, A genus of acalephs.
  • noun A genus of scombroid fishes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A quoit; a circular plate of some heavy material intended to be pitched or hurled as a trial of strength and skill.
  • noun The exercise with the discus.
  • noun A disk. See Disk.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A round plate-like object that is thrown for sport.
  • noun uncountable The athletics sport of discus throwing.
  • noun A discus fish.
  • noun rare, dated A chakram.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a disk used in throwing competitions
  • noun an athletic competition in which a disk-shaped object is thrown as far as possible

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin; see disk.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1656. From Latin discus, from Ancient Greek δίσκος (diskos, "disk, quoit, platter").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Have you and her been taking pictures of your obsessions?

    Because I met a boy who went through one of your sessions

    In his blue velour and silk

    You liberated

    A boy I never rated

    And now he's throwing discus

    For Liverpool and Widnes

    You liberated

    A boy I never rated

    And now he's doing business

    (The stars of track and field, by Belle and Sebastian)

    August 24, 2008

  • This beautiful song has been horribly stuck in my head since 7 am today.

    September 3, 2008