factory

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A building or group of buildings in which goods are manufactured; a plant.
• noun A business establishment for commercial agents or factors in a foreign country.
• noun The source of prolific production.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An establishment of merchants and factors resident in a foreign place, formed for mutual protection and advantage, usually occupying special quarters under their own control, and sometimes having fortified posts and depots.
• noun A body of factors; the association of persons in a factorial establishment.
• noun The employment or authority of a factor; power to act as a factor.
• noun A building or group of buildings appropriated to the manufacture of goods, including the machinery necessary to produce the goods, and the engine or other power by which such machinery is propelled; the place where workers are employed in fabricating goods, wares, or utensils: as, a cotton factory.
• noun Manufacture; making.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A house or place where factors, or commercial agents, reside, to transact business for their employers.
• noun The body of factors in any place.
• noun A building, or collection of buildings, appropriated to the manufacture of goods; the place where workmen are employed in fabricating goods, wares, or utensils; a manufactory.
• noun (Med.) a variety of bandy leg, associated with partial dislocation of the tibia, produced in young children by working in factories.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun obsolete A trading establishment, especially set up by merchants working in a foreign country.
• noun The position or state of being a factor.
• noun A building or other place where manufacturing takes place.
• noun A device which produces or manufactures something.
• noun programming In a computer program or library, a function or method which creates an object.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a plant consisting of one or more buildings with facilities for manufacturing