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Automatic
Definitions
- 1 Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
"The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device."
- 2 Done out of habit or without conscious thought.
"The reaction was automatic: flight!"
- 3 Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.
"Spitting at another player means an automatic red card."
- 4 Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.
"Fully automatic weapons cannot be legally owned by private citizens in the US, except in very special circumstances, as by private security companies."
- 5 An autoloader; a semi-automatic or self-loading pistol, as opposed to a revolver or other manually actuated handgun, which fires one shot per pull of the trigger; distinct from machine guns.
"The US Army adopted John Browning's M1911 pistol as its sidearm, chambered in .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol)."
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- 6 Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.
"Automatic variables are created on the stack. They are valid only from the point where they are declared to the end of the function."
- 7 Having one or more finite-state automata.
- 1 operating with minimal human intervention; independent of external control wordnet
- 2 resembling the unthinking functioning of a machine wordnet
- 3 without volition or conscious control wordnet
- 1 A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.
"I never learned to drive a stick. I can only drive an automatic."
- 2 a pistol that will keep firing until the ammunition is gone or the trigger is released wordnet
- 3 A semi-automatic pistol.
"The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns."
- 4 self-loading rifle capable of automatic fire wordnet
Etymology
Borrowed from New Latin automaticus, from Classical Latin automatum (“automaton”) + -icus (adjectival suffix), from Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, “self-moving, moving of oneself, self-acting, spontaneous”), from αὐτός (autós, “self, myself”) + μέμαα (mémaa, “to wish eagerly, strive, yearn, desire”). The original pronunciation, apparently with stress on the second syllable, was after the ultimate Greek base.
Borrowed from New Latin automaticus, from Classical Latin automatum (“automaton”) + -icus (adjectival suffix), from Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, “self-moving, moving of oneself, self-acting, spontaneous”), from αὐτός (autós, “self, myself”) + μέμαα (mémaa, “to wish eagerly, strive, yearn, desire”). The original pronunciation, apparently with stress on the second syllable, was after the ultimate Greek base.
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