Word.ws English Dictionary

détourn

détourn verb: to subject to detournement; to reuse (elements of mainstream media) to produce a subversive message.

Verb

détourn (third-person singular simple present détourns, present participle détourning, simple past and past participle détourned)

  1. To subject to detournement; to reuse (elements of mainstream media) to produce a subversive message.
    • […] to détourn clothing, with all its strong emotional connotations.2009, David Evans, Appropriation, page 39
    • […] to détourn one popular style of the day — novels full of adventurous youth engaging in promiscuous sex — this second novel should détourn another : the style known as nouveau roman (“new novel”).2019, James Trier, Guy Debord, the Situationist International, and the Revolutionary Spirit, page 199

Forms of détourn

third-person singular presentdétourns
present participledétourning
past participledétourned
pastdétourned

Questions about détourn

What does détourn mean?
Détourn means to subject to detournement; to reuse (elements of mainstream media) to produce a subversive message.
What part of speech is détourn?
Détourn is a verb.
What is the past tense of détourn?
The past tense of détourn is détourned.

Words near détourn in the dictionary

  1. désintéressement
  2. Désirée
  3. désoeuvré
  4. détente
  5. détentes
  6. détourn
  7. détourned
  8. détournement
  9. détournements
  10. détourning
  11. détourns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: détourn (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “détourn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/d%C3%A9tourn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.