remotes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of remote.

   Both remotes need fresh batteries before the movie starts.

   The drawer was full of old remotes for devices we no longer own.

   Note

   Three quite different things share this plural. In a living room, remotes are handheld controls, the word being short for remote controls. In broadcasting, they are segments that originate away from the station's control room. In software, they are code repositories hosted on another machine rather than locally. The surrounding context nearly always settles which is meant. The adjective never takes -s, so remotes is always a noun or a verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of remote.

   The technician remotes into each workstation to install the update.

   Whenever a server fails, the on-call engineer remotes in to restart it.

   Note

   A computing verb that usually travels with a particle: a technician remotes in, or remotes into a workstation, and the in or into carries the idea of reaching the machine from elsewhere. The same spelling also serves a separate verb meaning "to remove." It is identical to the plural noun as well, so only the sentence around it shows whether remotes is an action or a set of devices.

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