Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make or process (a raw material) into a finished product, especially by means of a large-scale industrial operation.
  • intransitive verb To make or process (a product), especially with the use of industrial machines.
  • intransitive verb To create, produce, or turn out in a mechanical manner.
  • intransitive verb To concoct or invent; fabricate.
  • intransitive verb To make or process goods, especially in large quantities and by means of industrial machines.
  • noun The act, craft, or process of manufacturing products, especially on a large scale.
  • noun An industry in which mechanical power and machinery are employed.
  • noun A product that is manufactured.
  • noun The making or producing of something.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The operation of making goods or wares of any kind; the production of articles for use from raw or prepared materials by giving to these materials new forms, qualities, properties, or combinations, whether by hand-labor or by machinery: used more especially of production in a large way by machinery or by many hands working coöperatively.
  • noun Anything made for use from raw or prepared materials; collectively, manufactured articles; figuratively, anything formed or produced; a contrivance.
  • noun A place or building in which manufacturing operations are carried on; a factory.
  • To make or fabricate, as anything for use, especially in considerable quantities or numbers, or by the aid of many hands or of machinery; work materials into the form of: as, to manufacture cloth, pottery, or hardware; to manufacture clothing, boots and shoes, or cigars.
  • Figuratively, to produce artificially; elaborate or get up by contrivance or special effort; hence, to make a show of; simulate: as, to manufacture words or phrases; a manufactured public opinion; manufactured grief or emotion.
  • To use as material for manufacture; work up into form for use; make something from: as, to manufacture wool into cloth.
  • To be occupied in manufactures; fabricate or elaborate something.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The operation of making wares or any products by hand, by machinery, or by other agency.
  • noun Anything made from raw materials by the hand, by machinery, or by art, as cloths, iron utensils, shoes, machinery, saddlery, etc.
  • intransitive verb To be employed in manufacturing something.
  • transitive verb To make (wares or other products) by hand, by machinery, or by other agency
  • transitive verb To work, as raw or partly wrought materials, into suitable forms for use.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The action or process of making goods systematically or on a large scale.
  • noun figuratively Anything made, formed or produced; product.
  • noun figuratively The process of such production; generation, creation.
  • verb To make things, usually on a large scale, with tools and either physical labor or machinery.
  • verb To create goods from raw material, e.g. in a factory.
  • verb In a negative sense, to fabricate; to create false evidence to support a point.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of making something (a product) from raw materials
  • verb create or produce in a mechanical way
  • verb put together out of artificial or natural components or parts
  • noun the organized action of making of goods and services for sale
  • verb make up something artificial or untrue
  • verb produce naturally

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From French, manufacture, from Old French, from Medieval Latin *manūfactūra : Latin manū, ablative of manus, hand; see man- in Indo-European roots + Latin factūra, working of a metal, from factus, past participle of facere, to make; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French manufacture, from Old French, from Medieval Latin manūfactūra ("a making by hand"), from manufactus, a compound of manu factus, manū being ablative of manus ("hand"), and factus past participle of faciō ("I do, make"). (compare main, manual, facture.)

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Examples

  • The term manufacture is not defined in the treaty but, as I wrote about in my

    ArmsControlWonk 2009

  • Not long afterward, the question became: lend money at interest, or invest in manufacture?

    A Bland and Deadly Courtesy skzbrust 2009

  • When you can find product right now there is little variety in manufacture or size, simply buy what you can find.

    Archive 2009-02-22 Canadian silver bug/Green Assassin Brigade 2009

  • If Central American squirrels migrate up here because walnut distribution and manufacture is more efficient, then it makes more sense to transfer the walnut technology down there.

    Yanquico, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • For example, for automotive software, much of the complexity comes from building fault-tolerance into the software because correcting hardware problems introduced in design or manufacture is prohibitively expense.

    steve | Serendipity 2010

  • I don't think any of us would question whether Dave has the experience to know what a cartridge or manufacture is capable of so if he sent this gun back because he expected more, that means the gun was underachieving.

    When is a Rifle Not Accurate Enough? 2009

  • When you can find product right now there is little variety in manufacture or size, simply buy what you can find.

    New Silver Bugs and other stuff. Canadian silver bug/Green Assassin Brigade 2009

  • The process requires trees, energy and chemicals, both in manufacture and distribution, all of which take their toll.

    Books, Ebooks and the Environment « Tales from the Reading Room 2010

  • I don't think any of us would question whether Dave has the experience to know what a cartridge or manufacture is capable of so if he sent this gun back because he expected more, that means the gun was underachieving.

    When is a Rifle Not Accurate Enough? 2009

  • For example, for automotive software, much of the complexity comes from building fault-tolerance into the software because correcting hardware problems introduced in design or manufacture is prohibitively expense.

    2010 March 24 | Serendipity 2010

Comments

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  • Is manufacture (or words closely related to it) the only English word containing the letter sequence 'ufa'?

    December 3, 2008

  • From an OED online wildcard search:

    There's Rufai, which is in the OED ('A howling dervish, one of an order of Muslim friars pledged to poverty and self-mortification.'), but taken from Turkish.

    Tufa, a geological term for a kind of pebble. Also tufaceous.

    Chufa, a kind of plant.

    Estufa, a kind of chamber.

    Gufa, a kind of boat.

    Stufa, an alternative form of stufe (obs.), a hot-air bath.

    Stufata (obs.), a stew.

    Wufan: 'Used attrib. to designate an official campaign launched in China in 1952 against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, skimping on work and cheating on materials, and theft of state economic information.'

    December 3, 2008

  • Also the panvocalic bufanolide.

    December 3, 2008

  • Also catalufa, calctufa, bufagin, and bufadienolide.

    December 3, 2008