Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Acting or operating in a manner essentially independent of external influence or control.
- adjective Self-regulating.
- adjective Acting or done without volition or conscious control; involuntary.
- adjective Acting or done as if by machine; mechanical.
- adjective Capable of firing continuously until ammunition is exhausted or the trigger is released.
- adjective Semiautomatic.
- noun An automatic machine or device.
- noun An automatic firearm.
- noun A semiautomatic firearm.
- noun A transmission or a motor vehicle with an automatic gear-shifting mechanism.
- idiom (on automatic) Functioning by or as if by automatic machine or device.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Acting as an automaton.
- Conducted or carried on by self-acting machinery.
- In physiology: Not voluntary; not under the control of, or not effected by, volition: said of certain muscular actions.
- Not reflex: said, for example, of certain activities of ganglion-cells.
- noun One who is subject to automatism.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having an inherent power of action or motion.
- adjective Pertaining to, or produced by, an automaton; of the nature of an automaton; self-acting or self-regulating under fixed conditions; operating with minimal human intervention; -- esp. applied to machinery or devices in which certain things formerly or usually done by hand are done by the machine or device itself; The opposite of
manual . - adjective (Physiol.) Not voluntary; not depending on the will; mechanical; controlled by the autonomic nervous system; without conscious control. The opposite of
voluntary . - adjective like the unthinking functioning of a machine.
- adjective such economic arts or manufacture as are carried on by self-acting machinery.
- noun light machine gun.
- noun a pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone or the trigger is released.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Capable of operating without external
control orintervention . - adjective Done out of
habit or withoutconscious thought. - adjective Firing continuously as long as the
trigger is pressed untilammunition is exhausted. - adjective computing Automatically added to and removed from the
stack during the course offunction calls . - noun A
car with automatictransmission . - noun A
semi-automatic firearm .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective resembling the unthinking functioning of a machine
- noun a pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone or the trigger is released
- adjective operating with minimal human intervention; independent of external control
- adjective without volition or conscious control
- noun light machine gun
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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No effort is required to dissolve them, which is the meaning of the term automatic liberation (rang-grol, self-liberation).
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The term automatic data capture is also known as automatic identification and data capture.
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1 The term 'automatic telephone dialing system' means equipment which uses a random or sequential number generator to produce telephone numbers to be called and to dial such numbers.'
Gizmodo Brian Barrett 2011
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FOSTER: Now, Darling says he aims to ban what he called automatic bonuses and expects to introduce legislation putting that into effect in the next few weeks.
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What many companies went to was what we call automatic billing.
The Nudge Matt Baehr 2008
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To this Marill attached a crude form of modem, operating at 2,000 bits per second, which he called an automatic dialer.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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To this Marill attached a crude form of modem, operating at 2,000 bits per second, which he called an automatic dialer.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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Thus what we call automatic is really an overflow of what has previously been stored up.
Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose His Life and Speeches Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose
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I think they do that because even though "automatic" is just "semi-auto", like my 1911, "automatic" just sounds more deadly to sheep who don't know any better.
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I think they do that because even though "automatic" is just "semi-auto", like my 1911, "automatic" just sounds more deadly to sheep who don't know any better.
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