automat
(ˈɔːtəmæt)
[G., f. F. automate automate n.]
1. = automaton.
| 1671 R. Bohun Wind 44 Air is a body so fluid, and tractable..that if it once be set a going, it as a kind of perpetuall Automat, continues the motion. 1887 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 518 Such is not the action of flesh and blood..but..of some fabulous species of automat. a 1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 186 The automat has no soul to lose. |
2. A cafeteria in which food is obtained from compartments by the insertion of a coin or token. U.S.
| 1903 Sci. Amer. 18 July 49/2 [in photograph of restaurant] Automat. 1909 Webster, Automat, a café or restaurant in which orders are automatically delivered to customers, who place coins or tokens in slots. 1919 F. Hurst Humoresque 48 Waldorf! You've got a fine chance. You mean the Automat, and two spoons for the ice-cream. 1921 Wodehouse Jill the Reckless xiv. 208 The Automat?.. The food's quite good. You go and help yourself out of slot-machines, you know. 1951 Amer. Speech Oct. 166 Probably the ‘Automat’, a self-serving institution supplying food, gave special impetus to the extension of the suffix -mat. |
3. An automatic slot-machine.
| 1908 Daily Chron. 11 Jan. 4/6 A very commendable feature has just been introduced into several German schools. Automats were placed in the courtyards, which, for a small coin, deliver hot or cold milk. 1958 Times 14 July 11/5 Next month..an ‘automat’ at the station [sc. New York subway] will receive the passengers' soiled clothes and return them, spotlessly dry-cleaned, the same day. |