Définition de « automatic » en Anglais

adjective

1. Capable of operating without external control or intervention.

   • The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device.

2. Done out of habit or without conscious thought.

   • The reaction was automatic: flight!
   • Absent-minded doodling is a form of automatic art.

3. Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.

   • Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.

4. (of a firearm such as a machine gun) Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.

   • Fully automatic weapons cannot be legally owned by private citizens in the US, except in very special circumstances, as by private security companies.

5. (of a handgun) An autoloader; a semi-automatic or self-loading pistol, as opposed to a revolver or other manually actuated handgun, which fires one shot per pull of the trigger; distinct from machine guns.

   • The US Army adopted John Browning's M1911 pistol as its sidearm, chambered in .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol).

6. (programming, of a local variable) Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.

7. (mathematics, of a group) Having one or more finite-state automata.

noun

1. A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.

   • I never learned to drive a stick. I can only drive an automatic.

2. A semi-automatic pistol.

   • The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns.