conveyor belt

American

noun

Machinery.

an endless belt or chain, set of rollers, etc., for carrying materials or objects short distances, as from one part of a building to another.

conveyor belt British

noun

a flexible endless strip of fabric or linked plates driven by rollers and used to transport objects, esp in a factory

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of conveyor belt

First recorded in 1905–10

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.

Like Rangnick, Kleitsch had been an instrumental figure in the shift to zonal marking, and he was also credited with making Stuttgart into a conveyor belt of world-class youth talent.

From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026

As it sinks, it pulls heat, carbon and nutrients downward, helping drive a global system of currents sometimes described as a conveyor belt.

From Science Daily • Apr. 30, 2026

Even as it tries to cut back, the PIF has been a conveyor belt of costly new investments.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026

The magic mix is then rapidly poured into a long line of empty bottles that march along a conveyor belt like soldiers.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2026

In Bethesda, Maryland, in the middle of a wide-open warehouse that was once a Fritos factory, he built a glass-enclosed room that housed a rotating conveyor belt with hundreds of test-tube holders built into it.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023