Automat
a type of self-service restaurant in which customers obtain food from small compartments by depositing the required number of coins in slots so that the doors can be opened.
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Automatyzacja.
Automat
American
[aw-tuh-mat]
/ ˈɔ təˌmæt /
Trademark.
automat
British
/ ˈɔːtəˌmæt /
noun
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Also called: vending machine. a machine that automatically dispenses goods, such as cigarettes, when money is inserted
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an area or room, sometimes having restaurant facilities, where food and other goods are supplied from vending machines
Explanation
An automat is a food-dispensing machine or a restaurant with many such machines. If you prefer getting your take-out without speaking to another human being, an automat is the place to go. The word automat has the same beginning as automatic, meaning "operating with minimal human intervention." Automats were quite popular in the early- to mid-1900s. These restaurants had fresh food selections, usually made on-site and displayed in glass compartments. Diners dropped a coin into a slot beside their chosen dish, turned a knob, and then lifted the glass door to take their food. The original term was automated cafeteria.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Apart from the tellingly-named ghost kitchens, fast-food companies, the successors of the original Automat, seem eager to find out.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2024
“The level of theater, romance and surprise that Horn & Hardart delivered at the Automat shaped how we thought about and built the Starbucks Experience.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2022
Automat Kitchen’s original opening date was postponed from April 2020 because of the pandemic, and many office workers in the building where it is located still have not returned.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2022
Does the Automat represent an American ideal in some ways, with its democratic approach?
From New York Times ● Feb. 18, 2022
He'd end up an exile washing dishes at the Automat.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
In 1902, Horn & Hardart opened the first automat in Philadelphia.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2024
AP: In “Asteroid City,” you combined an interest in really disparate ideas — the ’50s theater of Sam Shepard with the automat.
From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2023
Alec Shuldiner, a producer of the documentary who wrote his doctoral thesis at Cornell University on technological systems and the automat, is skeptical about prospects for 21st-century automats.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2022
And Ginsburg, of Brooklyn, recalls stopping by an automat en route to piano lessons and parking herself at a table with a book.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 21, 2022
From breakfast at the automat they went to laundry at the laundromat.
From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg
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