self-acting
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of self-acting
First recorded in 1670–80
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.
Its new rule said bump stocks were illegal machine guns because they function as “a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that allows the firing of multiple rounds through a single function of the trigger.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2024
It said the bump stock device functions as “a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that allows the firing of multiple rounds through a single pull of the trigger.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
The leading exhibitor in the line of self-acting lathes, planing, slotting, drilling and boring machines was J. Whitworth & Co., of Manchester, England.
From Inventions in the Century by Doolittle, William Henry
Besides devising numerous useful forms of galvanometers and other electrical instruments of precision, Werner Siemens was one of the discoverers of the principle of the self-acting dynamo.
From The Romance of Industry and Invention by Cochrane, Robert
The eye is a physical, but not a self-acting apparatus, and in general it sees only what it seeks.
From Man and Nature or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action by Marsh, George P.
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.
