arena
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (4)
- a particular environment or walk of life“his social sphere is limited”“it was a closed area of employment”“he's out of my orbit”Synonyms: spheredomainareaorbitfield
- the central area of an ancient Roman amphitheater where contests and spectacles were held; especially an area that was strewn with sand
- a large structure for open-air sports or entertainmentsSynonyms: stadiumbowlsports stadium
- a playing field where sports events take placeSynonyms: scene of action
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
1.(Rom. Antiq.) The area in the central part of an amphitheater, in which the gladiators fought and other shows were exhibited; -- so called because it was covered with sand. [1913 Webster]
2.Any place of public contest or exertion; any sphere of action; as, the arenaof debate; the arena of life. [1913 Webster]
3.(Med.) "Sand" or "gravel" in the kidneys. [1913 Webster]
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
<programming> The area of memory attached to a Unix process by the brk and sbrk system calls and used by malloc as dynamic storage. So named from a "malloc: corrupt arena" message emitted when some early versions detected an impossible value in the free block list.
See overrun screw, aliasing bug, memory leak, memory smash, smash the stack. [Jargon File]
(1995-12-28)
The Jargon File
[common; Unix] The area of memory attached to a process by brk(2) and sbrk (2) and used by malloc(3) as dynamic storage. So named from a malloc: corrupt arena message emitted when some early versions detected an impossible value in the free block list. See overrun screw, aliasing bug , memory leak, memory smash, smash the stack.