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.
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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
He also picked the endeavor’s code name: Project Automat, later amended to HTAutomat or HTA.
From Washington Post • May 28, 2022
“The level of theater, romance and surprise that Horn & Hardart delivered at the Automat shaped how we thought about and built the Starbucks Experience.”
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
But it wasn’t all soupy like the chow mein Mario had seen at the Automat.
From "The Cricket in Times Square" by George Selden
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.
