domestic

comparative more domestic · superlative most domestic · alternative obsolete domestick

1. Of or relating to the home.

   Synonyms: bourgeois, civilized, comfortable · Antonyms: adventurous, social

2. Of or relating to activities normally associated with the home, wherever they actually occur.

   domestic violence; domestic hot water

   1 more example

   The relationship between a hairstylist and a client can be far more than simply somebody to cut and shape hair, which is why Tennessee is the latest state to require cosmetologists to complete training on how to recognize and respond to signs of domestic abuse.

   2022 January 5, Kaanita Iyer, “Tennessee is the latest state to require hairstylists to complete domestic violence training”, in CNN

   Synonyms: domiciliary

3. Kept by someone, for example as a farm animal or a pet.

   It shall be the duty of any owner or person in charge of any domestic animal or animals.

   1890, US Bureau of Animal Industry, Annual report v 6/7, 1889/90

   Synonyms: domesticated · Antonyms: wild, feral

4. Internal to a specific country.

   domestic terrorism

   3 more examples

   The proportion of international economic flows relative to domestic ones.

   1996, Robert O. Keohane, Helen V. Milner, Internationalization and Domestic Politics

   Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

   2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 07 Aug 2020

   And amid all the finger-pointing and pushing to overcome the political fallout of the shooting, neither Mr. Trump or any of his advisers have explained why they falsely said the man the agents killed, Alex Pretti, had been brandishing a gun before he was shot, or why administration officials labeled him as a domestic terrorist before any investigation.

   2026 January 28, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hamed Aleaziz, “Shooting Aftermath Leaves Homeland Security Department in Turmoil”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   Synonyms: intranational · Antonyms: foreign, global

5. Tending to stay at home; not outgoing.

   “Dan’s not as domestic as you," I commented rather nastily.

   1994, George Whitmore, “Getting Rid of Robert”, in Violet Quill

   1 more example

   Homosexual men were non-warlike and homosexual women non-domestic, so that their energies sought different outlets from those of ordinary men and women; they became the initiators of new activities.

   1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)

plural domestics · alternative obsolete domestick

1. A maid or household servant.

   New standards of cleanliness increased the workload for domestics.

   1992, Mary Romero, Maid in the U.S.A.

   2 more examples

   It ſeems, the Minds of theſe People are ſo taken up with intenſe Speculations, that they neither can ſpeak, nor attend to the Diſcourſes of others, without being rouzed by ſome external Taction upon the Organs of Speech and Hearing; for which reaſon, thoſe Perſons who are able to afford it always keep a Flapper (the Original is Climenole) in their Family, as one of their Domeſticks, nor ever walk abroad or make Viſits without him.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Humours and Dispositions of the Laputians Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), pages 16–17

   Her fears thus prevailing, she communicated them to her mother as soon as the object of them had retired, who not in the least participating in them, they gradually subsided; but for an interval only, for, when retired to her chamber, during the hours of repose, every sound intimidated her; the growling of their faithful dog, or a halfsuppressed bark, brought the looks of the new domestic again before her sight.

   1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XIX, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 244

2. colloquialinformalA domestic dispute, whether verbal or violent.

   Nobody wanted to join the 'Cardigan Squad' – so-called because Child Protection officers were seen as woolly, glorified social workers that mopped up after domestics.

   2010, Harry Keeble, Baby X: Britain’s Child Abusers Brought to Justice, →ISBN, page 153

   1 more example

   2005, Bellingham-Whatcom County Commission Against Domestic Violence, Domestic Violence in Whatcom County (read on the Whatcom County website athttps://web.archive.org/web/20060618212243/http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/boards/dv_whatcom042505.pdf on 20 May 2006) - The number of “verbal domestics” (where law enforcement determines that no assault has occurred and where no arrest is made), decreased significantly.