typewriter
English
Etymology
From type + writer.
An electric typewriter from the 1960s.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): [ˈtaɪpˌɹaɪtə(ɹ)]
Audio (US) (file)
A manual typewriter from the early twentieth century.
Noun
typewriter (plural typewriters)
- A device, at least partially mechanical, used to print text by pressing keys that cause type to be impressed through an inked ribbon onto paper.
- (archaic) One who uses a typewriter; a typist.
- 1953, Mike Harris, The Southpaw:
- The typewriter got up and disappeared out a back door, and soon she come back with a man, and he said, "Can I be of some help, Mr. Higgens?"
-
- (US, dated, slang) A machine gun or submachine gun (from the noise it makes when firing).
- 1973, Edgar B. Jackson, Fall Out to the Right of the Road!, page 321:
- The battle had opened in earnest. From the wooded ridge came in reply the clacking of "typewriters,” and bullets whined over our heads.
- 1996, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Virtuous vampires, page 250:
- It was like sinking to sleep in a soft, dry bed with a big drink of brandy in you after you're dog-tired from a tour of duty on the firing-step, or slipping into a warm bath when you're lousy-dirty and chilled to the bone from crawling through mud and filth and dodging flares and 'typewriter' bullets half the night.
- 2001, Fredric Brown, Ben Yalow, From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown, page 234:
- Why, any day I'd go up against a typewriter, with a forty-five. One shot I'd need and there'd be time for three while he was getting that damn' thing swung around and pointed —
- 2005, R. Derby Holmes, A Yankee in the Trenches, page 60:
- Fortunately we were on the edge of a shallow shell hole when the sentry caught our movements and Fritz cut loose with the "typewriters."
-
- A prank in which fingers are jabbed roughly onto someone's chest followed by striking them over the ear in imitation of using an old-fashioned typewriter.
Synonyms
- typographer
- (one who uses a typewriter): typist
Derived terms
- Chicago typewriter
- memory typewriter
- microtypewriter
- TV typewriter
- typewriterless
- typewriterlike
- typewritery
Related terms
- type
- typewrite
- typist
- write
Translations
machine used to print text by pressing keys
|
one who uses a typewriter
|
See also
- touch-typist