FACTORY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does factory mean? 

• FACTORY (noun)
  The noun FACTORY has 1 sense:

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

  Familiarity information: FACTORY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FACTORY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A plant consisting of one or more buildings with facilities for manufacturing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

factory; manufactory; manufacturing plant; mill

Hypernyms ("factory" is a kind of...):

industrial plant; plant; works (buildings for carrying on industrial labor)

Meronyms (parts of "factory"):

assembly line; line; production line (mechanical system in a factory whereby an article is conveyed through sites at which successive operations are performed on it)

shop floor (workplace consisting of the part of a factory housing the machines)

Domain member category:

conveyer; conveyer belt; conveyor; conveyor belt; transporter (a moving belt that transports objects (as in a factory))

closed-circuit television (a television system that is not used for broadcasting but is connected by cables to designated monitors (as in a factory or theater))

uptime (a period of time when something (as a machine or factory) is functioning and available for use)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "factory"):

assembly plant (a factory where manufactured parts are assembled into a finished product)

auto factory; automobile factory; car factory (a factory where automobiles are manufactured)

cannery (a factory where food is canned)

chemical plant (an industrial plant where chemicals are produced)

foundry; metalworks (factory where metal castings are produced)

lumbermill; sawmill (a mill for dressing logs and lumber)

paper mill (a mill where paper is manufactured)

stamp mill; stamping mill (a mill in which ore is crushed with stamps)

steel factory; steel mill; steel plant; steelworks (a factory where steel is made)

sweatshop (factory where workers do piecework for poor pay and are prevented from forming unions; common in the clothing industry)

textile mill (a factory for making textiles)

 Context examples 

On that day, Mars and Neptune will be beautifully aspected, and you’ll become a virtual idea factory on your job.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Some were farm labourers; a good deal worked at Mr. Oliver's needle-factory, and at the foundry.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

These proteins combine with other molecules, called ribonucleic acids, to form ribosomes, which are the cell’s protein-making factories.

(Too much protein may kill brain cells as Parkinson’s progresses, NINDS)

They revealed the atomic structure of the antibiotic and showed that it's bound to and targets the ribosome, a protein production factory in bacterial cells.

(Scientists discover new antibiotic in tropical forest, National Science Foundation)

It forms when pollutants from cars, factories, and other sources react chemically with sunlight.

(Ozone, Environmental Protection Agency)

Car emissions, chemicals from factories, dust, pollen and mold spores may be suspended as particles.

(Air Pollution, Environmental Protection Agency)

Oceans and other waterways are rich in algae –- energy factories that convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into chemical energy and help remove carbon from the atmosphere.

(Scientists discover key factors in how some algae harness solar energy, National Science Foundation)

It was night-time, in the East End of London, and before him stood Margey, a little factory girl of fifteen.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There are more sailors than there are ships on the sea for them, more workers than there are factories or machines for them.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has transformed our understanding of protoplanetary discs — the gas- and dust-filled planet factories that encircle young stars.

(ALMA Discovers Trio of Infant Planets around Newborn Star, ESO)