displacement activity

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noun Animal Behavior.

a behavior performed out of its usual context and apparently irrelevant to the prevailing situation, as eating when an unknown individual approaches, tending to occur when appropiate behaviors, as attacking or fleeing, are in conflict or obstructed.

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Origin of displacement activity

First recorded in 1945–50

Words nearby displacement activity

displace, displaced, displaced homemaker, displaced person, displacement, displacement activity, displacement current, displacement hull, displacement ton, displacement tonnage, displacer

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use displacement activity in a sentence

The most recent activity had a high point of 3.6 on the Richter Scale.
26 Earthquakes Later, Fracking’s Smoking Gun Is in Texas|James Joiner|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“There is nothing whatsoever in the video which supports the charges—it shows no criminal activity,” Bakir said.
Sisi Is Persecuting, Prosecuting, and Publicly Shaming Egypt’s Gays|Bel Trew|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The masterpiece is huge, but structurally flawed and terribly vulnerable to seismic activity.
Florence Preps ‘David’ for the Big One|Barbie Latza Nadeau|December 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Moreover, trucks, dust, and boomtown stress are the effects of any large-scale industrial activity.
New York’s Conservative Fracking Ban|Jay Michaelson|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Some of them, including Kurnosova, escaped the country as they faced a possible jail term for their opposition activity.
Russians Plot Exiled Government in Kiev|Anna Nemtsova|December 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Other factors being equal, the amount of urea indicates the activity of metabolism.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
In disease, the amount of solids depends mainly upon the activity of metabolism and the ability of the kidneys to excrete.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
No young Cave Swallows were taken and gonads of adults were in various stages of reproductive activity.
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
It is the will directing the activity of the intellect into some particular channel and keeping it there.
Assimilative Memory|Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
Both animal and man seemed to be dozing, but they woke into activity when the sahib approached.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy

British Dictionary definitions for displacement activity

displacement activity

noun

psychol behaviour that occurs typically when there is a conflict between motives and that has no relevance to either motive, e.g. head scratching

zoology the substitution of a pattern of animal behaviour that is different from behaviour relevant to the situation, e.g. preening at an apparently inappropriate time

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012