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  • mimeograph
    mimeograph
    noun
    a printing machine with an ink-fed drum, around which a cut waxed stencil is placed and which rotates as successive sheets of paper are fed into it.
  • Mimeograph
    Mimeograph
    noun
    an office machine for printing multiple copies of text or line drawings from an inked drum to which a cut stencil is fixed
Synonyms

mimeograph

American  
[mim-ee-uh-graf, -grahf] / ˈmɪm i əˌgræf, -ˌgrɑf /

noun

  1. a printing machine with an ink-fed drum, around which a cut waxed stencil is placed and which rotates as successive sheets of paper are fed into it.

  2. a copy made from a mimeograph.


verb (used with object)

  1. to duplicate (something) by means of a mimeograph.

Mimeograph British  
/ ˈmɪmɪəˌɡrɑːf, -ˌɡræf /

noun

  1. an office machine for printing multiple copies of text or line drawings from an inked drum to which a cut stencil is fixed

  2. a copy produced by this machine

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to print copies from (a prepared stencil) using this machine

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of mimeograph

Formerly a trademark

Compare meaning

How does mimeograph compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

Explanation

A mimeograph is an old-fashioned copy machine. Mimeographs were often used for making classroom copies in schools before photocopying became inexpensive in the mid- to late-20th century. A mimeograph printed copies by pressing ink through a stencil onto paper, which was pulled by a crank through a system of rollers. The copies themselves were often also called mimeographs. Even after the invention of modern photocopiers, mimeographs were a popular way to make cheap copies, and many offices still had the machines as late as the 1990s. The root of mimeograph is the Greek mimeisthai, "to mimic, represent, or imitate."

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing mimeograph

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.

The book concludes with Jophan's discovery of "The Magic Mimeograph" which "… will produce the Perfect Fanzine … and now the song of the trumpets filled the air, ringing across Trufandom to the far mountains".

From The Guardian • Aug. 13, 2012

Mimeograph presses functioned as incubators for some of the most important writers in mid-20th century literature.

From National Geographic

He was also pointing up an old Washington custom: ghostwriters had become as much a part of the furniture of modern government as the Mimeograph machine.

From Time Magazine Archive

The spirit of DIY publishing that grew out of the Mimeograph Revolution flourished into the 1980s, when handmade fanzines permeated the punk music scene and feminist movements.

From National Geographic

Mimeograph, mim′ē-ō-graf, n. an apparatus in which a thin fibrous paper coated with paraffin is used as a stencil for reproducing copies of written or printed matter.—v.t. to reproduce such by this means.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various