mechanize

[mek-uh-nahyz]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mechanize ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), mech·a·nized, mech·a·niz·ing.

to make mechanical.

to operate or perform by or as if by machinery.

to introduce machinery into (an industry, enterprise, etc.), especially in order to replace manual labor.

Military. to equip with tanks and other armored vehicles.

Also especially British, mech·a·nise.

Origin of mechanize

First recorded in 1695–1705; mechan(ic) + -ize

Related formsmech·a·ni·za·tion, nounmech·a·niz·er, nounan·ti·mech·a·ni·za·tion, adjectiveun·mech·a·nized, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for mechanized

motorize, industrialize, equip, rig

Examples from the Web for mechanized

Contemporary Examples of mechanized

With its screen raised, it looked more than anything else like a mechanized bathtub.
Blood in the Sand: When James Jones Wrote a Grunt’s View of D-Day
James Jones
November 15, 2014
World War I mechanized war on a scale never before possible—a whole array of new weapons was developed.
Life Under Air Strikes: Children Under Fire Will Never Forget — or Forgive
Clive Irving
August 3, 2014
Chicago was the center of meatpacking, railroads, and mechanized agriculture, the flagships of industrial capitalism.
How the Jazz Age Invented Modern America
Wendy Smith
May 9, 2014
Oh, yes, did I forget to mention the mechanized conveyer belt?
‘Sweet Genius’: Ron Ben-Israel is the Scariest Man on Television
Jace Lacob
April 26, 2012

Historical Examples of mechanized

Mechanized, you will be of value to me when the great day comes.
The Copper-Clad World
Harl Vincent
Some spits were mechanized with a cogged wheel and a weight at the end of a string.
Our Legal Heritage, 5th Ed.
S. A. Reilly
The officers appeared like all the other people in the clockwork culture of the mechanized New System.
The Victor
Bryce Walton
Darkover is a civilized planet with a fairly high standard of living, but it is not a mechanized or a technological culture.
The Planet Savers
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mechanized milking equipment was also held in suspicion initially.
Frying Pan Farm
Elizabeth Brown Pryor

British Dictionary definitions for mechanized

mechanize

mechanise

verb (tr)

to equip (a factory, industry, etc) with machinery

to make mechanical, automatic, or monotonous

to equip (an army, etc) with motorized or armoured vehicles

Derived Formsmechanization or mechanisation, nounmechanizer or mechaniser, noun

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

Word Origin and History for mechanized

adj.

in the military sense of "equipped with or using mechanical vehicles and weapons," 1928, from past participle of mechanize (v.).

mechanize

1670s; see mechanic (adj.) + -ize. Related: Mechanized; mechanizing.