ptr

Noun

pointer (plural pointers)

1. One who points.
   • 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.1972, Lynn Hall, Sticks and Stones
2. A teacher's pointer, pointing stick, a rod with an arrow.

   Synonyms:

   fescue

3. A needlelike component of a timepiece or measuring device that indicates the time or the current reading of the device.

   Synonyms:

   hand, needle, indicator

4. Any of several breeds of hunting dog, trained to point out game; an individual of such a breed.
   • 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...2007, American Kennel Club, The Complete Dog Book, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 30
5. A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.
   • I do consider assignment statements and pointer variables to be among computer science's "most valuable treasures."1974, Donald Knuth, “Structured Programming with go to Statements”, in Computing Surveys, volume 6, number 5, →DOI, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2009, pages 261–301

   Synonyms:

   reference

6. An icon that indicates the position of the pointing device, such as a mouse.
   • 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.1995, Aaron Marcus, Nick Smilonich, Lynne Thompson, The Cross-GUI Handbook, Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 231

   Synonyms:

   cursor

See all 10 meanings of pointer