factory — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A building or other place where manufacturing takes place.

   Synonyms

   manufactory

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.

   The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.

   History has shown that, even without cheap labor, factories run perfectly well.

2. A police station.

   Usage

   • UK usage
   • Slang

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   The guys all knew each other and we were having a jolly old chinwag as we marched them out of the house in front of their stunned neighbours and into a van we had called to take them all to the Factory (police station).

3. A device or process that produces or manufactures something.

   Examples

   Radio became a star factory for journalists.

4. A factory farm.

   Examples

   chicken factory; pig factory

5. In a computer program or library, a function, method, etc. which creates an object.

   Examples

   The task factory […] is the object that is responsible for creating instances of those tasks dynamically.

6. The original state of an electronic device, as it was when it came from the manufacturer.

   Usage

   • attributive

   Examples

   factory settings; factory defaults; a factory reset

7. The position or state of being a factor.

   Usage

   • Scotland
   • Archaic

8. A trading establishment, especially set up by merchants working in a foreign country.

   Usage

   • Historical

   Examples

   We had here his curate, Mr. Furley, who had been nine years chaplain to the English factory at St. Petersburg […] .

9. An invoice or inventory.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   A short factory of goods sent to Janggamay by Thomas Samuell as principal, Tho. Dryver, and another named Cheque as assistants, anno 1613 in Sciam, the which amounteth as in a long factory at large appeareth, in Sciam money unto T. 2,025 2 2½, collected into this brief as followeth: […]

   What Sterl. is Mr. Lawſon to charge himſelf with, on Account of this Factory, […]

   A of Amſterdam is debtor to B of Briſtol, for mercery wares as per factory, 418 l. 2 s. 6 d.; […]

Adjective

1. Having come from the factory in the state it is currently in; original, stock.

   Usage

   • Colloquial
   • not-comparable
   • usually
   • of a configuration

   Examples

   See how there's another layer of metal there? That's not factory.

Noun

1. a plant consisting of one or more buildings with facilities for manufacturing

   Synonyms

   millmanufacturing plantmanufactory

   Broader terms

   plantworksindustrial plant