foreground

5 definitions found

foreground - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Foreground \Fore"ground`\, n.
     On a painting, and sometimes in a bas-relief, mosaic picture,
     or the like, that part of the scene represented, which is
     nearest to the spectator, and therefore occupies the lowest
     part of the work of art itself. Cf. Distance, n., 6.
     [1913 Webster]

foreground - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  foreground
      n 1: the part of a scene that is near the viewer
      2: (computer science) a window for an active application
      v 1: move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent;
           "The introduction highlighted the speaker's distinguished
           career in linguistics" [syn: foreground, highlight,
           spotlight, play up] [ant: background, downplay,
           play down]

foreground - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  foreground
  
     (Unix) On a time-sharing system, a task executing in
     foreground is one able to accept input from and return output
     to the user in contrast to one running in the background.
     Nowadays this term is primarily associated with Unix, but it
     appears first to have been used in this sense on OS/360.
     Normally, there is only one foreground task per terminal (or
     terminal window).  Having multiple processes simultaneously
     reading the keyboard is confusing.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1994-10-24)
  

foreground - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  foreground
   vt.
  
     [Unix; common] To bring a task to the top of one's stack for
     immediate processing, and hackers often use it in this sense for
     non-computer tasks. "If your presentation is due next week, I guess
     I'd better foreground writing up the design document."
  
     Technically, on a timesharing system, a task executing in foreground
     is one able to accept input from and return output to the user;
  oppose
     background. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with Unix,
     but it appears first to have been used in this sense on OS/360.
     Normally, there is only one foreground task per terminal (or terminal
     window); having multiple processes simultaneously reading the
  keyboard
     is a good way to lose.
  

foreground - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  53 Moby Thesaurus words for "foreground":
     anteriority, approach, approximation, bold front, brave face,
     brave front, closeness, confines, convergence, display, environs,
     facade, face, facet, facia, fore, forefront, forehand, foreland,
     forepart, forequarter, foreside, foreword, front, front elevation,
     front man, front matter, front page, front view, frontage, frontal,
     frontier, frontispiece, head, heading, immediacy,
     immediate foreground, lap, nearness, neighborhood, nighness,
     obverse, precinct, preface, prefix, priority, propinquity,
     proscenium, proximity, purlieus, vicinage, vicinity,
     window dressing