Automat

[aw-tuh-mat]

Trademark.

1. a type of self-service restaurant in which customers obtain food from small compartments by depositing the required number of coins in slots so that the doors can be opened.

automat

/ ˈɔːtəˌmæt /

noun

1. Also called: vending machine. a machine that automatically dispenses goods, such as cigarettes, when money is inserted

2. an area or room, sometimes having restaurant facilities, where food and other goods are supplied from vending machines

Example Sentences

"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.

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In 1902, Horn & Hardart opened the first automat in Philadelphia.

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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.

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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.

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The door slid open and an automat smiled at her.

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Related Words

• bistro 
• booth 
• coffee shop 
• saloon