pointer

point +‎ -er

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɔɪn.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɔɪn.təɹ/, /pɔɪnəɹ/

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• Hyphenation: point‧er
• Rhymes: -ɔɪntə(ɹ)

pointer (plural pointers)

1. Anything that points or is used for pointing.
2. (rare) One who points.
   • 1972, Lynn Hall, Sticks and Stones:

     The talkers and pointers had undermined him. They had touched him with the acid of their suspicions, and the corrosion spread until he himself had lost sight of the truth.

   • 2006, Alexandre Dumas, translated by Richard Pevear, The Three Musketeers, Viking, →ISBN, pages 645–646:

     The man he addressed drew back in horror, but answered the musketeer’s words by pointing his finger. Athos offered the man a half pistole to accompany him, but the man refused. Athos went down the street that the pointer had indicated to him with his finger; […]

   • 2010, Donald Junkins, Half Hitch, iUniverse, →ISBN:

     “Hey,” the finger pointer said, re-pointing his finger at Joe, “are you a joke or what?” / “I don't think I'm a joke.” / “Well I think you're a joke.” He dropped his hand and then lifted it again and pointed his finger at Joe's chest.

   • 2020, J.M. Griffin, Who’s Dead, Doc?, Kensington Books, →ISBN:

     One man pointed his finger at another, nearly poking the tip of it into the man’s chest. I sidled closer and heard the pointer accuse the other man of cheating.

3. A teacher's pointer, pointing stick, a rod with an arrow.

   Synonym: fescue

   Hyponym: yad

4. A needle-like component of a timepiece or measuring device that indicates the time or the current reading of the device.

   Synonyms: hand, needle

5. (hunting) A breed of hunting dog, trained to point out game.
   • 2007, American Kennel Club, The Complete Dog Book, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 30:

     Most of the early wirehaired pointers represented a combination of Griffon, Stichelhaar, Pudelpointer, and German Shorthair. The Pudelpointer was a cross between a Poodle dog and an English Pointer bitch; the Griffon and the Stichelhaar were composed of Pointer, Foxhound, Pudelpointer, and a Polish water dog.

6. (programming) A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.

   Synonym: reference

   Hyponyms: dangling pointer, function pointer, null pointer

   • 1974, Donald Knuth, “Structured Programming with go to Statements”, in Computing Surveys‎, volume 6, number 5, →DOI, archived from the original on August 24, 2009, pages 261–301:

     I do consider assignment statements and pointer variables to be among computer science's "most valuable treasures."

7. (graphical user interface) An icon that indicates the position of the pointing device, such as a mouse.

   Synonym: cursor

   • 1995, Aaron Marcus, Nick Smilonich, Lynne Thompson, The Cross-GUI Handbook, Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 231:

     The system notifies the user of the progress of a task by changing the appearance of the pointer. System-busy pointers usually adopt a timepiece metaphor.

8. (chiefly in the plural) A tip, a bit of advice.

   Synonym: advice

   The instructor gave me some pointers on writing a good paper.

   • 1964 April, “News and Comment: Auxiliaries in LT stock”, in Modern Railways, page 234:

     In a paper to the Institute of Locomotive Engineers on February 17 which ranged over the whole subject of auxiliary services on London Transport rolling stock, Mr. R. I. D. Arthurton, Mechanical Engineer (Development—Railways) London Transport Board, gave some pointers to the future on the Victoria Line and elsewhere.

9. Something that gives a point (sharp end) to something.

   pencil pointer

10. (in combinations) Something worth a given number of points.

    a ten-pointer

    • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport‎:

      After another penalty miss, Kvirikashvili finally found the target on 27 minutes before Flood hit back with a three-pointer of his own.

• (programming) dereference, address

• pointer (dog) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• pointer (computer programming) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• pointer (user interface) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• pointer (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Petrino, Petroni, interop, protein, pterion, repoint, tropein, tropine

From English pointer.

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pointer m (plural pointers, diminutive pointertje n)

1. (programming) pointer

From point +‎ -er, from the past participle of poindre.

• IPA^(key): /pwɛ̃.te/
• Homophones: pointai, pointé, pointée, pointées, pointés, pointez
• Rhymes: -e

pointer

1. to point to/at
2. (by extension) to indicate, to show, to point out
3. (arriving) to clock in (US), clock on (UK), to punch in (US); (leaving) to clock out (US), clock off (UK), to punch out (US) (to enter or leave a workplace by punching a time card)
4. (informal, takes a reflexive pronoun) to show up, turn up

   Synonyms: arriver, se ramener

   On doit se pointer à quelle heure?

   What time do we have to show up?

• pointage
• pointer du doigt
• pointer le bout de son nez
• zéro pointé

• → German: pointieren

Borrowed from English pointer.

• IPA^(key): /pwɛ̃.tɛʁ/

pointer m (plural pointers)

1. pointer (dog)

• “pointer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English pointer.

pointer m (plural pointers)

1. pointer (breed of hunting dog)

Borrowed from English pointer.

pointer m (plural pointeri)

1. (programming) pointer
   • 2021 September 8, Wikipedia contributors, “C (limbaj de programare)”, in English Wikipedia‎, Wikimedia Foundation:

     Acești pointeri sunt foarte folositori în programarea generică.

     These pointers are very useful in generic programming.

2. (hunting) pointer (dog breed)