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Webster 1913 Edition

Process

Proc′ess

,
Noun.
[F.
procès
, L.
processus
. See
Proceed
.]
1.
The act of proceeding; continued forward movement; procedure; progress; advance.
“Long process of time.”
Milton.
The thoughts of men are widened with the
process
of the suns.
Tennyson.
2.
A series of actions, motions, or occurrences; progressive act or transaction; continuous operation; normal or actual course or procedure; regular proceeding;
as, the
process
of vegetation or decomposition; a chemical
process
;
processes
of nature.
Tell her the
process
of Antonio’s end.
Shakespeare
3.
A statement of events; a narrative.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
4.
(Anat. & Zool.)
Any marked prominence or projecting part, especially of a bone; anapophysis.
5.
(Law)
The whole course of proceedings in a cause real or personal, civil or criminal, from the beginning to the end of the suit; strictly, the means used for bringing the defendant into court to answer to the action; – a generic term for writs of the class called judicial.
Deacon's process
[from H.
Deacon
, who introduced it]
(Chem.)
,
a method of obtaining chlorine gas by passing hydrochloric acid gas over heated slag which has been previously saturated with a solution of some metallic salt, as sulphate of copper.
–
Final process
(Practice)
,
a writ of execution in an action at law.
Burrill.
–
In process
,
in the condition of advance, accomplishment, transaction, or the like; begun, and not completed.
–
Jury process
(Law)
,
the process by which a jury is summoned in a cause, and by which their attendance is enforced.
Burrill.
–
Leblanc's process
(Chem.)
,
the process of manufacturing soda by treating salt with sulphuric acid, reducing the sodium sulphate so formed to sodium sulphide by roasting with charcoal, and converting the sodium sulphide to sodium carbonate by roasting with lime.
–
Mesne process
.
See under
Mesne
.
–
Process milling
,
the process of high milling for grinding flour. See under
Milling
.
–
Reversible process
(Thermodynamics)
,
any process consisting of a cycle of operations such that the different operations of the cycle can be performed in reverse order with a reversal of their effects.

Webster 1828 Edition

Process

PROC'ESS

,
Noun.
[L. processus, from procedo. See Proceed.]
1.
A proceeding or moving forward; progressive course; tendency; as the process of man's desire.
2.
Proceedings; gradual progress; course; as the process of a war.
3.
Operations; experiment; series of actions or experiments; as a chimical process.
4.
Series of motions or changes in growth, decay, &c. in physical bodies; as the process of vegetation or of mineralization; the process of decomposition.
5.
Course; continual flux or passage; as the process of time.
6.
Methodical management; series of measures or proceedings.
The process of the great day--is described by our Savior.
7.
In law, the whole course of proceedings, in a cause, real or personal, civil or criminal, from the original writ to the end of the suit. Original process is the means taken to compel the defendant to appear in court. Mesne process is that which issues, pending the suit, upon some collateral or interlocutory matter. Final process is the process of execution.
8.
In anatomy, any protuberance, eminence or projecting part of a bone.

Definition 2024

process

process

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpɹəʊ̯.sɛs/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɑː.sɛs/
  • (Canada) IPA(key): /ˈpɹoʊ̯.sɛs/, /ˈpɹɑː.sɛs/

Noun

process ‎(plural processes)

  1. A series of events which produce a result, especially as contrasted to product.
    • 2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City”, in BBC Sport:
      But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
      Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.
    This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.
  2. (law) Documents issued by a court in the course of a lawsuit or action at law, such as a summons, mandate, or writ.
  3. (biology) An outgrowth of tissue or cell.
  4. (anatomy) A structure that arises above a surface.
  5. (computing) A task or program that is or was executing.
  6. (manufacturing) A set of procedures used to produce a product, most commonly in the food and chemical industries.
    • 1960, Mack Tyner, Process Engineering Calculations: Material and Energy Balances - Ordinarily a process plant will use a steam boiler to supply its process heat requirements and to drive a steam-turbine generator.
    • 1987, J. R. Richards, Principles of control system design in Modelling and control of fermentation processes - The words plant or process infer generally any dynamic system, be it primarily mechanical, electrical, or chemical process in nature, and may extend also to include social or economic systems.
  7. A path of succession of states through which a system passes.
    • 2012 January 1, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 23:
      We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
  8. (anatomy) Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Related terms
Translations

Verb

process ‎(third-person singular simple present processes, present participle processing, simple past and past participle processed)

  1. (transitive) To perform a particular process.
    We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.
  2. (transitive) To think an information over, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it as valid.
  3. To retrieve, store, classify, manipulate, transmit etc. (data, signals, etc.), especially using computer techniques.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Back-formation from procession.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /prəˈsɛs/

Verb

process ‎(third-person singular simple present processes, present participle processing, simple past and past participle processed)

  1. (chiefly Britain) To walk in a procession.

Anagrams

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

process c

  1. process

Declension

Etymology

From Old French procés ‎(“journey”), from Latin processus, past participle of procedo

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