Definition of "dislocation" []

• The act or process of dislocating or the state of having been dislocated: "the severe emotional dislocation experienced by millions of immigrants . . . who were forced to separate themselves forever from the . . . circle of people and places on which they had depended” ( Doris Kearns Goodwin). (noun)
• Displacement of a body part, especially the temporary displacement of a bone from its normal position. (noun)
• Chemistry An imperfection in the crystal structure of a metal or other solid resulting from an absence of an atom or atoms in one or more layers of a crystal. (noun)
• Geology See displacement. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In some persons the ligaments of the joint are unnaturally lax, and dislocation is liable to occur repeatedly from comparatively slight causes -- _recurrent dislocation_."
• "_Fractures of metatarsal bones_; _Fractures of phalanges_ -- DISLOCATIONS: _Of ankle joint_; _Of inferior tibio-fibular joint_; _Complete dislocation of talus_; _Sub-taloid dislocation_; _Medio-tarsal dislocation_; _Tarso-metatarsal dislocation_; _Dislocations of toes_."
• "The temporal dislocation is performative, a matter of backdrops and props, idioms of rewritten dialogue."