manufacture

Formsmanufactures, manufacturing, manufactured

Pluralmanufactures (some meanings)

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To make things, often in large amounts, using tools and either human labor or machinery.

   Local plants manufacture steel beams for construction projects.

   The firm manufactures medical equipment for hospitals nationwide.

   Similarproduce, make, build, fabricate, assemble

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The making of goods in large quantities or by an organized, systematic process.

   The manufacture of automobiles requires vast assembly lines.

   Large-scale manufacture moved overseas during the 1990s.

   Similarproduction, fabrication, making, assembly

   Note

   A word for systematic, large-scale production that is built from the word for hand. Medieval Latin manūfactūra meant "a making by hand," from manū, "by hand," and factus, "made," the same hand found in manual. In this sense it usually takes of plus the product, as in the manufacture of chewing gum, and it names the activity rather than any single thing made.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To work raw or partly finished materials into forms that are ready for use.

   The plant manufactures crude ore into refined metal sheets.

   Skilled craftsmen manufacture raw clay into sturdy bricks.

   Similarprocess, convert, turn, work

4. 4
   verbderogatorytransitive

   To invent false evidence or facts in order to support a claim.

   Politicians sometimes manufacture outrage to distract the public.

   The reporter accused them of manufacturing quotes from anonymous sources.

   Similarfabricate, invent, concoct, fake, contrive

   Note

   Here the verb turns accusing. To say someone manufactured something is to say it was made up, not found. Its typical objects tell the story: excuses, lies, evidence. Daniel Zalewski in The New York Times (2000) writes that digital technology made it easy "to manufacture lies." The sting comes from the factory sense, which implies deliberate production. Use it of claims you mean to discredit, never as a neutral word for creating something.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   Anything that is made, formed, or produced; a product.

   The exhibition displayed manufactures of glass and porcelain.

   Every manufacture in the catalog passed strict quality checks.

   Similarproduct, article, commodity

   Note

   The countable side of the noun. Where the process names an activity, this sense names the things it turns out and takes a plural. Jonathan Swift's A Short View of the State of Ireland (1727) describes carriers "laden with rich manufactures." The word also served the language of invention: Newton's London Journal of Arts and Sciences (1853) expects a "patented manufacture" to beat what it replaces in quality or cost.

6. 6
   nounfigurativelyuncountable

   The process of producing something; the generation or creation of it.

   The manufacture of public opinion shaped the whole campaign.

   The slow manufacture of trust between nations takes decades.

   Similarcreation, production, generation, fabrication, building

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A watchmaking firm that produces its own components rather than assembling watches from parts bought from other companies.

   The company became a manufacture after it began producing its own movements.

   Only a handful of manufactures make their own hairsprings.

   Note

   A watchmaker's term of distinction, and not simply another word for manufacturer. Calling a firm a manufacture says that it makes its own parts in-house instead of buying them in and assembling them. The noun is countable, so collectors speak of a manufacture and of the few manufactures that make their own movements. The label carries prestige because it marks a firm that does the whole job itself.

Showing meanings only. Show all 7