Definition of "process"

process¹

/ˈpɹəʊsɛs/

noun
plural processes
1. A series of events which produce a result (the product).
  Quotations
  But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.
  2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City”, in BBC Sport
  Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […] In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.
  2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
  For each of the schemes discussed, there is the four-stage process of planning, funding, delivery and operations, in which the various parties involved might be the lead, a partner or an influencer.
  2019 October, John Glover, “Heathrow rail expansion”, in Modern Railways, page 73
2. (manufacturing) A set of procedures used to produce a product, most commonly in the food and chemical industries.
3. A path of succession of states through which a system passes.
  Quotations
  We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
  2012 January, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 November 2012, page 23
4. (anatomy) Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
5. (law) Documents issued by a court in the course of a lawsuit or action at law, such as a summons, mandate, or writ.
  Quotations
  But if either at Calling by the Clerk, after the Session Bell, or before the Ordinary by the Roll, an Advocat compears, and craves to be Marked for the Defender, and to see the Process; The Clerk in the first Case, and the Judge in the second, will allow him to see it
  1711, John Spotiswood, The Form of Process‎, section 39
6. (biology) An outgrowth of tissue or cell.
7. (anatomy) A structure that arises above a surface.
8. (computing) An executable task or program.
9. The centre mark that players aim at in the game of squails.
verb
third-person singular simple present processes, present participle processing, simple past and past participle processed
1. (transitive) To perform a particular process on a thing.
2. (transitive) To retrieve, store, classify, manipulate, transmit etc. (data, signals, etc.), especially using computer techniques.
  Quotations
  If you process you own digital files, it's as time consuming, or maybe even more time consuming, than it is to process and print your own film.
  2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, page 92
3. (transitive, figurative) To think about a piece of information, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it in a modified state.
4. (transitive, photography, film) To develop photographic film.
5. (transitive, law) To take legal proceedings against.
  Quotations
  When I saw that he would not let me alone, I processed him for £12. My mother was with his brother John, and he allowed her six guineas for clothes; and if she did not want the money, he would allow it to me in the rent, and I made him pay that when he would not leave me alone.
  1845, Report from Her Majesty's Commissioners of inquiry into the state of the law and practice in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland

process²

/pɹəˈsɛs/

verb
third-person singular simple present processes, present participle processing, simple past and past participle processed
1. To walk in a procession