# robot

Pronunciation: say "ROH-bot" US /ˈɹoʊ.bɑt/, UK /ˈɹəʊ.bɒt/, AUS /ˈɹəʉ.bɔt/

## Noun

1. A machine that can carry out complex tasks automatically, usually controlled by a computer, sometimes built or imagined to look and act like a human or animal.
   - Simple: A machine that does jobs by itself, sometimes made to look and act like a person or animal.
   - _A welding robot repeats the same precise motion thousands of times a day._
   - _The rescue team sent a robot into the collapsed mine to search for survivors._
2. A software program, often called a bot, designed to perform a task automatically.
   - Simple: A computer program made to do a task by itself, like a helper that works online.
   - _Search engines rely on a robot to index millions of pages each day._
   - _Spammers deploy robots to create thousands of fake accounts overnight._
3. A person who appears to lack any emotions or individuality, behaving in a mechanical, unfeeling way.
   - Simple: A person who acts with no feelings and seems to have no mind of their own.
   - _The new manager treated his staff like robots, ignoring their needs entirely._
   - _Stop being such a robot and tell me how you actually feel._
4. A street dance, popular since the 1970s, in which the dancer imitates the stiff, jerky movements of a stereotypical robot.
   - Simple: A dance where you move in a stiff, jerky way, copying how a robot moves.
   - _The crowd cheered as the breakdancer broke into the robot._
   - _She nailed the robot, freezing sharply between each mechanical motion._
5. A traffic light controlling vehicle movement at an intersection, used especially in South African English. *(South Africa)*
   - Simple: A traffic light that tells cars when to stop and go, used especially in South Africa.
   - _Traffic backed up for blocks when the robot at the main intersection failed._
   - _She told me to stop at the third robot and park just past it._

## Other meanings

- (noun) In Central Europe, a form of serfdom in which tenants paid their rent through forced labor.
- (noun) A theodolite that tracks the movements of a prism, allowing it to be operated by a one-person crew.
- (noun) A habitual poster on the /r9k/ board of 4chan, or a member of that online community.

## Origin

Borrowed from Czech robot, from robota ("drudgery, servitude"), the word was coined in 1920 in Karel Čapek's science-fiction play R.U.R. after being suggested to him by his brother Josef. It is ultimately cognate with Old English earfoþe and German Arbeit, and related to English orphan.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/robot (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).