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repeater

[ri-pee-ter]
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noun
  1. a person or thing that repeats.
  2. a repeating firearm.
  3. Horology. a timepiece, especially a watch, that may be made to strike the hour or part of the hour.Compare clock watch.
  4. Education. a pupil who repeats a course or group of courses that he or she has failed.
  5. a person who votes illegally by casting more than one vote in the same election.
  6. a person who has been convicted and sentenced for one crime, and later for another; recidivist.
  7. Mathematics. (no longer in technical use) a repeating decimal.
  8. Telecommunications. a device capable of receiving one-way or two-way communications signals and delivering corresponding signals that are either amplified, reshaped, or both.
  9. Navigation. gyro repeater.
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Origin of repeater

First recorded in 1570–80; repeat + -er1
Related formsnon·re·peat·er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for repeaters

Historical Examples

  • "Half o' them's repeaters," said the keeper, overhearing the remark.

    Harper's Young People, July 27, 1880

    Various

  • There's a limit to the number of repeaters that can be brought into the district.

  • In one place he had "interfered with an election and killed five repeaters."

    The Stolen White Elephant

    Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

  • We are putting in a set of repeaters here, so you can reach him this way.

    The Young Railroaders

    Francis Lovell Coombs

  • There were primaries in New York city in 1827, and hundreds of repeaters voted.

    The American Language

    Henry L. Mencken

British Dictionary definitions for repeaters

repeater

noun
  1. a person or thing that repeats
  2. Also called: repeating firearm a firearm capable of discharging several shots without reloading
  3. a timepiece having a mechanism enabling it to strike the hour or quarter-hour just past, when a spring is pressed
  4. electrical engineering a device that amplifies or augments incoming electrical signals and retransmits them, thus compensating for transmission losses
  5. Also called: substitute nautical one of three signal flags hoisted with others to indicate that one of the top three is to be repeated
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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 repeaters

repeater

n.

1570s, agent noun from repeat (v.). As a type of firearm from 1868; as "a frequent offender" from 1884.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper