automatic

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Capable of operating without external control or intervention.

   • The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device.
   • "But you know of the automatic card-player?" […] Carrados had heard more than once casual allusions to a wonderful mechanical contrivance that played cards with discrimination.
2. 2

   Done out of habit or without conscious thought.

   • The reaction was automatic: flight!
   • Absent-minded doodling is a form of automatic art.
   • "I don't know why! Sometimes I feel like a girl! Sometimes a guy! I don't know why I feel that way! I just do! Always have! I can't remember not feeling this way! How do you explain something as natural and automatic to you as breathing?!"
3. 3

   Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.

   • Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.
4. ›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 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.
   2. 5

      An autoloader

      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).
      • From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece.
   3. 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.
   4. 7

      Having one or more finite-state automata.

   5. 8

      A car with an automatic transmission

      A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.

      • I never learned to drive a stick. I can only drive an automatic.
   6. 9

      A semi-automatic pistol.

      • The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns.
      • "I told him that if my automatic was not a spook-stopper, nothin' else would serve."
      • 'The automatic under his pillow gave the lie to that statement.'

The neighborhood

• neighborautomagical
• neighborautomat
• neighborautomation
• neighborautomatization
• neighborautomatize
• neighborautomaton
• neighborautomobile
• neighborautopilot
• neighborsemi-automatic
• neighbormanumatic
• neighbormanual