detail

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French détail, from Old French detail, from detaillier, from de- + taillier (“to cut”).

noun

1. (countable) A part small enough to escape casual notice.
   Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.
   We missed several important details in the contract.
2. (uncountable) A profusion of details.
   This etching is full of fine detail.
   Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements. 2013-07-19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18
3. (uncountable) The small parts that can escape casual notice.
   Attention to detail was said to be one of the secrets of Gerrard's success as a player. May 4, 2018, Tom English, “Steven Gerrard: A 'seriously clever or recklessly stupid' Rangers appointment”, in BBC Sport
4. A part considered trivial enough to ignore.
   I don't concern myself with the details of accounting.
5. (countable) A person's name, address and other personal information.
   The arresting officer asked the suspect for his details.
6. (military, law enforcement) A temporary unit or assignment.
   Frequently members of the small police detail dispatched to the scene joined in. 2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 7, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order[…], New York: Oxford University Press, Part II. The Neoliberal Order, 1970–2020
7. An individual feature, fact, or other item, considered separately from the whole of which it is a part.
   WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. 2013-06-07, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18
8. A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
9. (paintings) A selected portion of a painting.
   On the cover of Julia Kristeva's Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia is a detail from a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, “Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Elizabeth Binzenstock, and Her Two Children, Philip and Catherine.” 1992, Janice L. Doane, Devon L. Hodges, From Klein to Kristeva, page 53
   Shrubbery and the hand of Christ (detail of plate 12) 2001, Maryan Wynn Ainsworth, Early Netherlandish Painting at the Crossroads, page 110
   Eight years later, the outstanding exponent of Memory Painting was herself publicly commemorated by a six-cent postage stamp showing a detail from one of her most patriotic works, July Fourth (1951). 2001, Charles Russell, Self-taught Art: The Culture and Aesthetics of American Vernacular Art, page 100

verb

1. (transitive) To explain in detail.
   I'll detail the exact procedure to you later.
   It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world. November 27, 2014, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian
2. (transitive) To clean carefully (particularly of road vehicles) (always pronounced. /ˈdiːteɪl/)
   We need to have the minivan detailed.
3. (transitive, military, law enforcement) To assign to a particular task.
   Two years after England’s World Cup victory, Stiles was at Wembley again to help Manchester United become the first English team to win the European Cup final. Again Eusébio was one of his opponents, playing for Benfica, and again Stiles was detailed to keep him quiet. […] 30 October 2020, Brian Glanville, “Nobby Stiles obituary”, in The Guardian