demo

plural demos

1. informalA demonstration or visual explanation.

   The professor prepared a demo to help her class understand the topic.

   2 more examples

   ER received the first of its own HSTs on September 7 1977, with a handover taking place at York. It then worked a demo run to Darlington with power cars 43057 and 43056.

   2019 December 18, Richard Clinnick, “Traction transition: HST to Azuma”, in Rail, page 33

   But she added that “public demos like this are important for building truly robust conversational AI systems and bridging the clear gap that exists today before such systems can be productionized.”

   2022 August 11, Catherine Thorbecke, “It didn’t take long for Meta’s new chatbot to say something offensive”, in CNN Business

2. informalA recording of a song meant to demonstrate its overall sound for the purpose of getting it published or recorded more fully.

   After hearing the demo, the record label approved funding to record the song with a full band.

3. informalAn example of a product used for demonstration and then sold at a discount.

   Synonyms: floor model

4. informalA march or gathering to make a political protest.

   Elli standing there, takes a sip of her tea, fixes hostile eyes on Somraj and says, ‘Well, what are you waiting for? You signed the petition against yourself, will you now join our demo against you?’

   2007, Indra Sinha, Animal's People, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

   Synonyms: march, demonstration

5. informalcomputingAn edition of limited functionality to give the user an example of how the program works.

   The game's developers released a demo version to the public 3 months before the full release.

6. informalcomputingA non-interactive audiovisual computer program developed by enthusiasts to demonstrate the capabilities of the machine. See demoscene.

   A very successful PC demo from 1993, Second Reality from Future Crew[…]

   2008, Tamás Polgár, Freax: the brief history of the demoscene: Volume 1

   3 more examples

   Effect 6: Gouraud spacecut - Probably the worst effect in the demo - has been done miles better before!

   1995, dro...@vnet.ibm.com, “Demo review - Killing time by oxyron”, in alt.sys.amiga.demos (Usenet)

   This party will have it all for the Amiga scener: demos, competitions, dealers, and huge projection screen and sound system to entertain you.

   1996, John Bus, “Amiga Domain - An Aussie Scene Party!”, in alt.sys.amiga.demos (Usenet)

   Though the idea of procedural textures has been around for years, they have primarily been exploited by the demo scene, made famous by impressive demos like kkrieger, and haven't hit it big in the game industry yet[…]

   2007, Game Face, numbers 21-25

7. informalA democrat.
8. collectiveinformalA demographic group.

   Our target demo is sports-minded families, and a good part of our clientele is moms who are with dad and the kids.

   2005, Market Watch, page 41

   2 more examples

   No more ‘is it good?’ or even ‘is it original?’, only ‘does it work in the demo?’ – ‘demo’ as in ‘demographics’, not to be confused with ‘democracy’, much less ‘demonstration’.

   2000 September 21, Hal Foster, “Slumming with Rappers at the Roxy”, in London Review of Books, volume 22, number 18, →ISSN

   Where taste communities and Nielsen demos differ is in the way they’re used. Demo ratings are how linear networks measure success; taste communities are the tool Netflix relies on to drive viewers to new material it estimates they might want to watch.

   2018 June 11, Josef Adalian, “Inside the Binge Factory”, in New York Magazine

9. informalespecially construction and DIYDemolition.

   The demo portion of the reno project is the relatively fast and inexpensive part. The rebuilding takes more time and money.

1. not comparabledesigned to test consumers' interest in a retail item prior to purchasing.

   This Nutty Kid leavin' 'Crazy Face Selfies' On Demo Products...

   December 21, 2022, u/[deleted], Reddit r/peopleofwalmart

present singular third person demos · participle present demoing · participle past demoed · past demoed

1. informaltransitiveTo record a demo version of (a song).

   The band demoed thirty songs. Their manager thought that ten of the songs would make a good record.

2. informaltransitiveTo demonstrate.

   We'll be demoing the new version of the software on Thursday.

present singular third person demos · participle present demoing · participle past demoed · past demoed

1. informalTo demolish (especially a house or fixture).

   This means we are going to demo the house to the dirt, or hopefully leave one wall standing.

   2004 June 29, Sonja, Salvage Materials before Demolition of House, quoted in The Owner-Builder Book: Construction Bargain Strategies →ISBN, page 336