Definition of "automatic"

automatic

/ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/

adjective
comparative more automatic, superlative most automatic
1. Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
2. Done out of habit or without conscious thought.
  Quotations
  "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?!"
  2021 November 10, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, Nov 10, 2021
3. Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.
4. (of a firearm such as a machine gun) Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.
5. (of a handgun) 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.
  Quotations
  From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece.
  1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
6. (computing, of a local variable) Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.
7. (mathematics, of a group) Having one or more finite-state automata.
noun
plural automatics
1. A car with automatic transmission.
2. A semi-automatic pistol.
  Quotations
  "I told him that if my automatic was not a spook-stopper, nothin' else would serve."
  1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
  'The automatic under his pillow gave the lie to that statement.'
  1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 262

Definition of "automatic"

automatic

adjective

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations