Also called: vending machine. a machine that automatically dispenses goods, such as cigarettes, when money is inserted
an area or room, sometimes having restaurant facilities, where food and other goods are supplied from vending machines
An automat is a food-dispensing machine or a restaurant with many such machines. If you prefer getting your take-out without speaking to another human being, an automat is the place to go. The word automat has the same beginning as automatic, meaning "operating with minimal human intervention." Automats were quite popular in the early- to mid-1900s. These restaurants had fresh food selections, usually made on-site and displayed in glass compartments. Diners dropped a coin into a slot beside their chosen dish, turned a knob, and then lifted the glass door to take their food. The original term was automated cafeteria.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Apart from the tellingly-named ghost kitchens, fast-food companies, the successors of the original Automat, seem eager to find out.
From Salon • Jan. 22, 2024
It was to be the Automat of the intelligence community, “with its doors never tightly closed and with customers going in and out, day and night,” according to a CIA history.
From Washington Post • May 28, 2022
This story has been updated to reflect the closure of Automat Kitchen in Jersey City.
From Washington Post • Apr. 8, 2022
They all fondly recall eating at an Automat — that beloved institution of D.I.Y. dining that lasted from 1902 to 1991 in New York and Philadelphia.
From New York Times • Feb. 18, 2022
He told Francie how he ate in a place called the Automat where you put a nickel in a slot and coffee and cream came out together—not too little, not too much, just a cupful.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
