Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word automaton. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word automaton, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say automaton in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word automaton you have here. The definition of the word automaton will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofautomaton, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Nick had heard her play through the very beginning of it a dozen times, until he was screaming at her in his head to go on. Well, now she did, watching her own hands busying up and down the keyboard as if they were astonishing automata that she had wound up and set in motion, in perfect synchrony, to produce this silvery flow of sound.
A person who acts like a machine or robot, often defined as having a monotonouslifestyle and lacking in emotion.
Due to her strict adherence to her daily schedule, Jessica was becoming more and more convinced that she was an automaton.
July 12, 1816, Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Kercheval Monticello
A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third, and so on 'til the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering.
—to the young man who filled a place at table as the permitted, not invited, the unrewarded labourer for an ungrateful taskmaster—the handsome dangler, allowed to join in a quadrille, on the condition of being an automaton before and after—the listener to young members, and old women of rank—the person who must bore nobody, but whom every body had a right to bore!
