conveyor belt

American  

noun

Machinery.

conveyor belts plural

1. an endless belt or chain, set of rollers, etc., for carrying materials or objects short distances, as from one part of a building to another.

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conveyor belt British  

noun

1. a flexible endless strip of fabric or linked plates driven by rollers and used to transport objects, esp in a factory

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• conveyor belts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of conveyor belt

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

“Until you have stronger economic growth and are less constrained by debt, it’s highly likely the conveyor belt of PMs will continue.”

From MarketWatch • Jun. 22, 2026

Like Furbank, he represents that conveyor belt of Northampton talent, crowning a superb 18 months in which he has debuted for England and the British and Irish Lions.

From BBC • Jun. 20, 2026

The first stop on the conveyor belts takes the materials over a series of rolling coils called an auger screen that sift out the cardboard and push it to a separate conveyor belt.

From Barron's • Jun. 17, 2026

Even as it tries to cut back, the PIF has been a conveyor belt of costly new investments.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026

At a tortilla factory, where my job would be to load dough balls onto a conveyor belt, the “interview” is completed by a bored secretary without so much as a “Hi, how are you?”

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich