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.

---

adding machine British  

noun

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

---

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

Composed mostly during one anxious December on a roll of adding machine tape, it set the template for the others, including the National Book Award-winning "Garbage."

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 5, 2018

Still feeling frustrated because he hadn’t been able to take Ernestine to the speed typing contest, Dad insisted on taking Martha to an adding machine exhibition in New York.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey