adding machine

American  

noun

1. a machine capable of adding numbers and sometimes capable of performing the other arithmetic functions of subtraction, multiplication, and division: such machines are now obsolescent, having been replaced in most applications by electronic calculators.

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adding machine British  

noun

1. a mechanical device, operated manually or electrically, for adding and often subtracting, multiplying, and dividing

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Etymology

Origin of adding machine

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

The first adding machine was invented in 1623.

From Salon • Jan. 16, 2023

The vintage telephone and even more vintage adding machine!

From Slate • Feb. 11, 2020

Bowman is a language dervish—the pleasure in hearing him describe the adding machine, the source of William S. Burroughs’s family as “the rosary of capitalism,” belongs not to me but to literature.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 2, 2019

Mandell's Solomon, his hands aflutter as though dancing on the keys of an adding machine, traverses the stage like an old bird on twig-like legs that are about to snap.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 22, 2015

Typewriter and adding machine safe in black chest in private office.

From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank