different between detent vs dedent

English

Etymology

From French détente, from Latin tend? (“to stretch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??t?nt/ or IPA^(key): /?di?t?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt
• Hyphenation: de?tent

Noun

detent (plural detents)

1. That which locks or unlocks a movement; a catch, pawl, or dog; especially, in clockwork, the catch which locks and unlocks the wheelwork in striking.
   • 1972, Mayer et al., United States Patent 3760640, abstract:

     A UHF tuner having 70 detent positions with fine tuning capability at all locations. Coarse tuning is accomplished via a toothed, detented disk and a spirally-extending rim having a follower lever operable therewith.

Verb

detent (third-person singular simple present detents, present participle detenting, simple past and past participle detented)

1. The action of creating a detent mechanism to lock or unlock movement.

Further reading

• detent in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• detent in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• detent at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• netted, tented

English

Etymology 1

de- +? indent

Verb

dedent (third-person singular simple present dedents, present participle dedenting, simple past and past participle dedented)

1. (computing, transitive, primarily Python) To outdent; to remove an indent
   • 2008, Matthew A. Telles, Python Power!: The Comprehensive Guide, ?ISBN, page 80-81:

     Dedent Region If there were any need to prove that Python was a programmer's tool, and not something written for anyone with the slightest grasp of the English language, instead of the Python language, this menu option would dissuade them from that belief. Really, who would call something dedent? ... Unlike the indenting command, dedenting (can this really be used as a verb?) a block can cause problems.

   • 2009, Chris Smith, Programming F#, ?ISBN, page 7

     If the body of the if statement, the failwith, was dedented four spaces and therefore lined up with the if keyword, the F# compiler would yield a warning.

   • 2016, Laura Tateosian, Python For ArcGIS (page 24)

     Items within a block structure are sequential code statements indented the same amount to indicate that they are related. The first line of code dedented (moved back a notch) after a block structure does not belong to the block structure.

Etymology 2

de- +? dent

Verb

dedent (third-person singular simple present dedents, present participle dedenting, simple past and past participle dedented)

1. To remove a dent or dents from.

Etymology 3

Noun

dedent (plural dedents)

1. Alternative form of detent

Anagrams

• 'tended, dented, tended

Latin

Verb

d?dent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of d?d?