Automat
Americannoun
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Also called: vending machine. a machine that automatically dispenses goods, such as cigarettes, when money is inserted
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an area or room, sometimes having restaurant facilities, where food and other goods are supplied from vending machines
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.
"Only in recent years has it been possible to detach individual layers from crystals using liquid-based processes, in which the layers are much more strongly bound than in graphite," explains Rico Friedrich, head of the "DRESDEN-concept" junior research group AutoMaT.
From Science Daily
Though the popularity of the Horn & Hardart automat gradually dwindled as Americans ceased to live in a nickel-and-dime economy, and the last location eventually closed its doors in 1991, for a moment in time, the automat represented the first step towards a glimmering future free of pointless, time-consuming human contact, ostensibly leaving its inhabitants open for bigger and better things.
From Salon
Apart from the tellingly-named ghost kitchens, fast-food companies, the successors of the original Automat, seem eager to find out.
From Salon
In 1902, Horn & Hardart opened the first automat in Philadelphia.
From Salon
“Vision Tower ahead. Prepare to exit,” the automat announced.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
