Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#DISCUSSCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#DISCUSS discussen, from Middle FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Middle French#DISCUSS and Anglo-NormanCategory:English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#DISCUSS discusser (French discuter), from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#DISCUSS discussus, past participle of discutiō (“to strike or shake apart, break up, scatter; examine, discuss”), from dis- (“apart”) + quatiō (“to shake”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈskʌs/Category:English 2-syllable words#DISCUSSCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DISCUSS
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /dɪˈskʊs/Category:English 2-syllable words#DISCUSSCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DISCUSS
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /dɪˈskʌs/Category:English 2-syllable words#DISCUSSCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DISCUSS

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#DISCUSS
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /dɪˈskɐs/Category:English 2-syllable words#DISCUSSCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DISCUSS
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /dəˈskɐs/Category:English 2-syllable words#DISCUSSCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DISCUSS
• Rhymes: -ʌsCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌs#DISCUSSCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌs/2 syllables#DISCUSS

Verb

discuss (third-person singular simple present discusses, present participle discussing, simple past and past participle discussed)Category:English lemmas#DISCUSSCategory:English verbs#DISCUSSCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#DISCUSSCategory:Pages with entries#DISCUSSCategory:Pages with 1 entry#DISCUSS

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#DISCUSS) To converse or debate concerning a particular topic.

   Synonyms: bespeak, betalk, debate, talk about, treat; see also Thesaurus:discuss

   Let's sit down and discuss whether we should have a baby.Category:English terms with usage examples#DISCUSS

   I don't wish to discuss this further.Category:English terms with usage examples#DISCUSS

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#DISCUSS, obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#DISCUSS) To communicate, tell, or disclose (information, a message, etc.).

   Synonyms: apprise, impart; see also Thesaurus:inform

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Nym: I will discuss the humour of this love to Page.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DISCUSS

   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Pistol: Discuss unto me; art thou officer? Or art thou base, common and popular?

     Category:English terms with quotations#DISCUSS

3. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#DISCUSS, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#DISCUSS) To break to pieces; to shatter.

   Synonyms: busticate, fragment, splinter, toshiver

4. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#DISCUSS, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#DISCUSS, colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#DISCUSS) To deal with, in eating or drinking; consume.

   Synonyms: get outside, put away; see also Thesaurus:ingest

   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter II, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

     When the preparations were finished, he invited me with—“Now, sir, bring forward your chair.” And we all, including the rustic youth, drew round the table: an austere silence prevailing while we discussed our meal.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DISCUSS

   • 1854, Samuel White Baker, The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon:

     We sat quietly down and discussed a cold fowl that we had brought with us.

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   • 1858, James Hogg, Titan, volume 27, page 306:

     In the first room we entered, a soldier and a man, like a clerk or dominie, were discussing a bottle of red wine; they immediately sprang up and politely proffered us each a bumper.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DISCUSS

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5. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#DISCUSS, lawCategory:en:Law#DISCUSS) To examine or search thoroughly; to exhaust a remedy against, as against a principal debtor before proceeding against the surety.
6. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#DISCUSS, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#DISCUSS) To drive away, disperse, shake off; said especially of tumors.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For she was giuen all to fleshly lust, / And poured forth in sensuall delight, / That all regard of shame she had discust, / And meet respect of honour put to flight […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#DISCUSS

   • 1635, James Guillimeau [i.e., Jacques Guillemeau], “Of Gripings and Fretting in the Belly, which Trouble Little Children”, in The Nvrsing of Children. Wherein is Set Downe the Ordering and Government of Them from Their Birth. Together with the Meanes to Helpe and Free Them from All Such Diseases as may Happen unto Them. Written in French by Iames Guillimeau, the French Kings Chirurgion in Ordinary, London: Printed by Anne Griffin, for Ioyce Norton, and Richard Whitaker; published in Child-birth, or, The Happy Delivery of VVomen. VVherein is Set Downe the Government of Women. In the Time of Their Breeding Childe: Of Their Travaile, both Naturall and Contrary to Nature: And of Their Lying in. Together with the Diseases, which Happen to VVomen in Those Times, and the Meanes to Helpe Them. To which is Added, a Treatise of the Diseases of Infants, and Young Children: With the Cure of Them, and also of the Small Pox. With a Treatise for the Nursing of Children. Written in French by Iames Gvillimeav the French Kings Chirurgion, London: Printed by Anne Griffih, for Ioyce Norton, and Richard Whitaker, 1635, →OCLC, page 52:

     If too much milke be the cauſe, then the Nurſe ſhall not give the childe ſucke ſo often, nor in ſuch plenty: If it proceed from wind, and that doe cauſe the childe to be thus troubled, it ſhall be diſcuſſed with Fomentations applied to the belly and navell; and with Carminative Cliſters, which ſhall bee given him, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#DISCUSS

   • June 15, 1751, Samuel Johnson, letter in The Rambler

     The softness of my hands was secured by medicated gloves, and my bosom rubbed with a pomade prepared by my mother, of virtue to discuss pimples, and clear discolourations.

   • 1642, Henry Wotton, A Short View of the Life and Death of George Villiers:

     Many arts were used to discuss the beginnings of new affliction.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DISCUSS

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See also

• argue

Further reading

• “discuss”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “discuss”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “discuss”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.