foreground

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 \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
 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

   (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)
    

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