adding machine

American  

noun

1. a machine capable of adding numbers and sometimes capable of performing the other arithmetic functions of subtraction, multiplication, and division: such machines are now obsolescent, having been replaced in most applications by electronic calculators.

---

adding machine British  

noun

1. a mechanical device, operated manually or electrically, for adding and often subtracting, multiplying, and dividing

---

Etymology

Origin of adding machine

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

The first adding machine was invented in 1623.

From Salon • Jan. 16, 2023

Bowman is a language dervish—the pleasure in hearing him describe the adding machine, the source of William S. Burroughs’s family as “the rosary of capitalism,” belongs not to me but to literature.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 2, 2019

Composed mostly during one anxious December on a roll of adding machine tape, it set the template for the others, including the National Book Award-winning "Garbage."

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 5, 2018

In offices, worker productivity benefited from the typewriter, invented in 1867, the cash register, invented in 1879, and the adding machine, invented in 1885.

From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014

At one point, his calculations were effectively held up for a year while he waited for the university to provide him with a simple adding machine.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson