computer

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A programmable electronic device that performs mathematical calculations and logical operations, especially one that can process, store and retrieve large amounts of data very quickly; now especially, a small one for personal or home use employed for manipulating text or graphics, accessing the Internet, or playing games or media.

   Meronyms: processor, microprocessor, CPU

2. 2
   noun

   A person employed to perform computations; one who computes.

   I haue read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number: The daies of Man are threescore and ten.

3. 3
   verb

   To use a computer.

   Cool he was computering, though. My dad, who is only in his 60's (mom too) thinks he is too busy to get connected to the internet. Oh well. More bandwidth for the rest of us, huh?

4. 4
   verb

   To send via computer.

   They had immediately computered the description out to the scores of law enforcement agencies in Southern California.

5. 5
   verb

   To transfer onto a computer; to computerize.

   I know there are storage warehouses in New York and Virginia and all over the place, St. Louis, and many other places, that keep these things. I think this is a very fertile area for this committee, and perhaps computering it, or microfilm preservation, or things of that sort.

6. 6
   noun

   a machine for performing calculations automatically

7. 7
   noun

   an expert at calculation (or at operating calculating machines)

Etymology

From compute + -er. Doublet of cantore, counter, and kontor. First sense first appears c. 1613 in the works of the poet Richard Brathwait. Second sense first appears c. 1897 in the magazine Engineering.