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.
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mimeograph
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Mimeograph
Mimeographnounan office machine for printing multiple copies of text or line drawings from an inked drum to which a cut stencil is fixed
mimeograph
American
[mim-ee-uh-graf, -grahf]
/ ˈmɪm i əˌgræf, -ˌgrɑf /
noun
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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.
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a copy made from a mimeograph.
verb (used with object)
Mimeograph
British
/ ˈmɪmɪəˌɡrɑːf, -ˌɡræf /
noun
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an office machine for printing multiple copies of text or line drawings from an inked drum to which a cut stencil is fixed
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a copy produced by this machine
verb
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."
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.
See Examples For:
Steinem remembers the days in which hand-outs and calls to action were made on a primitive duplicating machine called a mimeograph.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2023
“We did everything from mimeograph to walk door to door,” Molina said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2023
I enjoyed the July 19 “Doonesbury” on the subject of virtual diplomas — until I reached the last panel that called the diploma a mimeograph because it was purple.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 31, 2020
They had a mimeograph machine, and distributed circulars in the neighborhood, and when the Black Panthers started in Oakland, the Diggers lent them the machine for the first three issues of their newspaper.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2017
A beefy lance corporal with a sledgehammer was smashing typewriters and mimeograph machines.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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
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
All it takes, he says, is a Mimeograph machine, the instrument "that gives back a student's heritage."
From Time Magazine Archive
Mimeograph machines were easy enough for school children to use, and affordable enough for counterculture artists to buy.
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
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