industrial revolution

[in-duhs-tree-uhl rev-uh-loo-shuhn]

noun

1. none the industrial revolution or the Industrial Revolution the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, such as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.

2. any period of change to the economic and social organization of a country, region, etc., that is characterized by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines and the concentration of industry in large establishments.

Industrial Revolution

noun

1. the transformation in the 18th and 19th centuries of first Britain and then other W European countries and the US into industrial nations

Industrial Revolution

1. The rapid industrial growth that began in England during the middle of the eighteenth century and then spread over the next 50 years to many other countries, including the United States. The revolution depended on devices such as the steam engine (see James Watt), which were invented at a rapidly increasing rate during the period. The Industrial Revolution brought on a rapid concentration of people in cities and changed the nature of work for many people. (See Luddites.)

Word History and Origins

Origin of industrial revolution¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

In August of that year, after his company reported revenue and earnings growth of more than 60%, Chambers said “the second Industrial Revolution is just beginning,” A year later, the stock was down 67%.

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“It’s Year 3 of a 10-year build out of this 4th Industrial Revolution in our view,” Ives says.

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He said his final design - of the Brit figure cast in an amber resign - reflected "the golden honey of a worker bee, symbolising the city's role during the Industrial Revolution and so much more".

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Certainly, workplaces have been made safer for more than a century, from the early days of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s.

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Guns have been widely discussed over the last decade, in books from David Silverman’s “Thundersticks,” on colonial America, to David Cressy’s “Saltpeter,” on gunpowder, to Priya Satia’s “Empire of Guns,” on the Industrial Revolution.

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