mechanize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make mechanical.
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to operate or perform by or as if by machinery.
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to introduce machinery into (an industry, enterprise, etc.), especially in order to replace manual labor.
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Military. to equip with tanks and other armored vehicles.
verb
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to equip (a factory, industry, etc) with machinery
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to make mechanical, automatic, or monotonous
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to equip (an army, etc) with motorized or armoured vehicles
Other Word Forms
- mechanization noun
- mechanizer noun
- unmechanized adjective
Etymology
Origin of mechanize
First recorded in 1695–1705; mechan(ic) + -ize
Explanation
When you use machines to streamline a process or job, you mechanize it. If you’re tired of pedaling uphill, mechanize your bike by putting a motor on it. Whenever someone uses automation or technology to do work that was previously done by humans, they mechanize that work. Throughout history, and especially since the Industrial Revolution, inventors have mechanized jobs that were once done by hand. Factories mechanize processes such as making glass bottles, once done more slowly and laboriously by glassblowers. Mechanize is rooted in the Greek mekhanikos, which means "inventive" or "pertaining to machines."
Vocabulary lists containing mechanize
Content Summary 5.3: The First Industrial Revolution
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Content Summary 6.1: Origins and Outcomes of World War I in Global Context
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The Modern Period, c. 1750 to c. 1914
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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.
Other growers are trying industrial-scale greenhouses, indoor beds of soil in massive warehouses and special robots to mechanize parts of the farming process.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 17, 2023
One of his forebears, Sir Horace Plunkett, pioneered modern, industrial farming in Ireland early last century, encouraging small farmers to set up cooperatives and to mechanize their operations and use fertilizers and chemicals.
From New York Times • Jun. 27, 2023
So long as peasant families were available to plant and harvest crops, there was no pressing need to mechanize agriculture either.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
Leonard: There’s no way to mechanize it completely, at least not in a way that makes us all feel good about the outcome.
From Slate • Jun. 17, 2020
It was Foaly’s idea to mechanize the whole procedure.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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.
