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robot

nounnounnouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈɹəʊ.bɒt//
  • United Kingdom//ˈɹəʊ.bət//
  • United States//ˈɹoʊ.bɑt//

An intelligent mechanical being designed to look like a human or other creature, and usually made from metal.

noun

  1. 1

    historicalA system of serfdom used in Central Europe, under which a tenant's rent was paid in forced labour.

    “I say again, down with the robot!—he is a dog who yields it!”

    Although the robot varied from region to region, it was rarely less than burdensome.

Etymology

From German Robot, from a West Slavic language, ultimately related to Etymology 2, below.

noun

  1. 1

    An intelligent mechanical being designed to look like a human or other creature, and usually made from metal.

    The robots in Dick's novel, loosely adapted by Ridley Scott into the film Blade Runner, were so similar to humans that when they went rogue, trained bounty hunters were called in to perform psychological tests to see whether suspected androids lacked human empathy.

  2. 2

    A machine built to carry out some complex task or group of tasks by physically moving, especially one which can be programmed.

    We have a robot in the house that does the vacuuming.

    It's painfully slow and complex work which has never been attempted before in these conditions: the small box-shaped robots, equipped with two claws, are operating in almost freezing water 5,000ft below the surface, in pitch black and strong currents.

    Compared to humanoids, industrial robots typically feature less advanced technology and perform less sophisticated tasks. They’re widely used in industrial settings for manufacturing or transportation. […] About 56% of the humanoid robot supply chain companies are based in China, according to a Morgan Stanley research report last month.

  3. 3

    A bot, software designed to perform a task.

    Clifton Sellers attended a Zoom meeting last month where robots outnumbered humans.

  4. 4

    figurativeA person who does not seem to have any emotions or individuality.

    Straight society tries to change us by several means. Most of the time, it is mental torture, though physical abuse is not uncommon. We are programmed to be straight starting from the day we are born, and every action, word, and feeling must conform to the straight image. If we DO decide to be free rather than to be robots, here are some of the consequences.

    Yet surely he was a humorless robot of a man, spewing forth lonely and bitter critiques of all those lesser mortals with whom he could not identify.

  5. 5

    A traffic light (from earlier robot policeman).

  6. 6

    A theodolite which follows the movements of a prism and can be used by a one-man crew.

  7. 7

    A style of dance popular in disco in which the dancer imitates the stiff movements of a stereotypical android robot.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃erbʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos Proto-Balto-Slavic *árbas Proto-Slavic *orbъ Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Balto-Slavic *-éitei Proto-Slavic *-iti Proto-Slavic *orbiti Proto-Indo-European *-otéh₂ Proto-Balto-Slavic *-atā́ˀ Proto-Slavic *-ota Proto-Slavic *orbota Old Czech robota Czech robota Czech robotbor. English robot Borrowed from Czech robot, from robota (“drudgery, servitude”). Coined in the 1920 science-fiction play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek after having been suggested to him by his brother Josef. Ultimately a cognate with Old English earfoþe and German Arbeit; see dialectal erf. Doublet of etymology 1. Related to English orphan, but with a -t- suffix from Proto-Slavic instead of the -an- from Ancient Greek. Compare Polish robotnik and Russian работник (rabotnik, “worker”), sometimes mistakenly cited as the direct source of the English word.

noun

  1. 1

    A habitual poster on the /r9k/ board on 4chan; a member of the /r9k/ community.

    One anonymous message addressed to "fellow robots" hoped readers would have "an enjoyable Elliot Rodger day"—a reference to the shooter who killed six near a Santa Barbara university last year.

    Posters on the board are locked in an ongoing debate about who can be one of them— a "robot." Can white guys be robots, despite their privilege? Can black guys? Women love them! It goes on and on. Only one rule really seems to be agreed upon: "If you have no friends and no gf you are a robot."

    It continued: "On October 5, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. CT, a fellow robot will take up arms against a university near Philadelphia. His cries will be heard, his victims will cower in fear, and the strength of the Union will decay a little more."

    As /r9k/ robots posted and reposted Pepes to playfully mock their status as grotesque outsiders whose very visage was disturbing to "normies," they ushered in a renaissance of frogs that soon appealed to all the netizens who every year had a little more in common with withdrawn, internet-soaked hikikomori.

Etymology

Referencing the origin of the name of the 4chan imageboard /r9k/ (created in 2008), so-called because it implements the ROBOT9000 algorithm by Randall Munroe to prevent the reposting of content. Possibly overlapping with the sense of robot (“a person who does not seem to have any emotions”), alluding to autism, due to the prevalence of personal stories describing awkward or embarrassing situations on the board.

Forms

plural
robots
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).