| / English Dictionary |
AUTOMATIC
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone or the trigger is released
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("automatic" is a kind of...):
automatic firearm; automatic gun; automatic weapon (a firearm that reloads itself and keeps firing until the trigger is released)
handgun; pistol; shooting iron; side arm (a firearm that is held and fired with one hand)
Derivation:
automatic (operating with minimal human intervention; independent of external control)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Light machine gun
Synonyms:
automatic; automatic rifle; machine rifle
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("automatic" is a kind of...):
automatic firearm; automatic gun; automatic weapon (a firearm that reloads itself and keeps firing until the trigger is released)
machine gun (a rapidly firing automatic gun (often mounted))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "automatic"):
assault gun; assault rifle (any of the automatic rifles or semiautomatic rifles with large magazines designed for military use)
BAR; Browning automatic rifle (a portable .30 caliber automatic rifle operated by gas pressure and fed by cartridges from a magazine; used by United States troops in World War I and in World War II and in the Korean War)
Derivation:
automatic (operating with minimal human intervention; independent of external control)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Operating with minimal human intervention; independent of external control
Example:
a budget deficit that caused automatic spending cuts
Classified under:
Similar:
smart (capable of independent and apparently intelligent action)
semiautomatic (partially automatic)
self-winding (designed so that manual winding is unnecessary)
self-locking (locking automatically when closed)
self-acting; self-activating; self-moving; self-regulating (designed to activate or move or regulate itself)
automated; machine-controlled; machine-driven (operated by automation)
autoloading; self-loading; semiautomatic ((of firearms) capable of automatic loading and firing continuously)
Also:
mechanical (using (or as if using) mechanisms or tools or devices)
Antonym:
manual (requiring human effort)
Derivation:
automatic (a pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone or the trigger is released)
automatic (light machine gun)
automatize (make automatic or control or operate automatically)
automaton (a mechanism that can move automatically)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Resembling the unthinking functioning of a machine
Example:
machinelike efficiency
Synonyms:
automatic; automatonlike; machinelike; robotic; robotlike
Classified under:
Similar:
mechanical (using (or as if using) mechanisms or tools or devices)
Derivation:
automatize (turn into an automaton)
automaton (someone who acts or responds in a mechanical or apathetic way)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Without volition or conscious control
Example:
sneezing is reflexive
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
involuntary (controlled by the autonomic nervous system; without conscious control)
Domain category:
physiology (the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms)
Context examples:
I had devised an automatic jib-sheet which passed the jib across of itself, so there was no need for Maud to attend to that; but she was still hoisting the jib when I put the wheel hard down.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
If your mother needs you to set up automatic payments for recurring expenses or your father would like you to help him find a specialist like an eye doctor, you can help with these types of things.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
It was all automatic.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
It was automatic; he had said it so often before under similar circumstances of first meetings.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
And their refusals had been cold-blooded, automatic, stereotyped.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
You are feeding me now because you are herd animals; because you are part of the mob; because the one blind, automatic thought in the mob-mind just now is to feed me.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
It was sheerly automatic, and his visioning was an unfailing accompaniment to the living present.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
He put on his hat and went out, stopping in at a gun-store, where he spent the remainder of the morning buying automatic rifles, ammunition, and fishing tackle.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
A fraction of a second too long in the water and the fine and silken edge of the proper heat was lost, and Martin found time to marvel at the accuracy he developed—an automatic accuracy, founded upon criteria that were machine-like and unerring.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Ask him the grain output of Paraguay for 1903, or the English importation of sheetings into China for 1890, or at what weight Jimmy Britt fought Battling Nelson, or who was welter-weight champion of the United States in '68, and you'll get the correct answer with the automatic celerity of a slot-machine.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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