Definition of "factory" in English

noun

1. A building or other place where manufacturing takes place.

   • History has shown that, even without cheap labor, factories run perfectly well.

2. (UK, slang) A police station.

3. A device or process that produces or manufactures something.

4. A factory farm.

   • chicken factory; pig factory

5. (programming) In a computer program or library, a function, method, etc. which creates an object.

6. (attributive) The original state of an electronic device, as it was when it came from the manufacturer.

   • factory settings; factory defaults; a factory reset

7. (chiefly Scotland, now rare) The position or state of being a factor.

8. (historical) A trading establishment, especially set up by merchants working in a foreign country.

   • We had here his curate, Mr. Furley, who had been nine years chaplain to the English factory at St. Petersburg […] .

adjective

1. (colloquial, of a configuration, part, etc.) Having come from the factory in the state it is currently in; original, stock.

   • See how there's another layer of metal there? That's not factory.