hardware
nounUS /ˈhɑɹdˌwɛɹ/ · UK /ˈhɑːdˌwɛə/
Etymology From Middle English hardware; equivalent to hard + -ware; attested since the mid-15th century.
8 senses
Fixtures, equipment, fasteners, tools, and devices used for general-purpose construction and repair of a structure or object. Also such equipment as sold as stock by a store of the same name, e.g. hardware store.
- He needed a hammer, nails, screws, nuts, bolts and other assorted hardware, so he went to the hardware store.
Informal Equipment.
- military hardware
- BOWEN: The monster trucks of Mars rovers, joke scientists, equipped with an array of sophisticated hardware to look for signs of water and answer scientists questions.2003 June 6, “Mission to Mars”, in CBS_Rather:
2 more examples
- It is one thing to see an intercooler as a simple entry in a textbook, but to witness the actual hardware as it crawled down the road was awe-inspiring.2009 May, Lee S. Langston, “plowing new ground.”, in Mechanical Engineering, volume 131, number 5, page 40:
- Smaller, turbocharged engines are one way to increase engine efficiency by 8 to 10 percent, but the extra hardware is expensive.2011 January, “Swedish Sportster”, in Popular Mechanics, volume 188, number 1, page 27:
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The part of a computer that is fixed and cannot be altered without replacement or physical modification; motherboard, expansion cards, etc.
- Hardware is the generally accepted colloquism for anything inside a computer other than an engineer.1952, R.L. Michaelson, “Binary Arithmetic”, in The Incorporated Statistician, volume 3, number 1 (Feb. 1952), pages 35–40:
Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Technology Electronic equipment.
Metal implements.
- The designers have put their logo on the hardware of this bag here.
Slang A firearm.
Slang Medals or trophies.
Philippines, Abbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of hardware store.
- Synonyms
- hardware
- Derived terms
- biohardware, hardware-accelerated, hardware acceleration, hardware cloth, hardware description language, hardware disease, hardware engineer, hardwareless, hardwareman, hardware node, hardware store, hardware wallet, hardwarily, nonhardware
- Hyponyms
- bus, cache, card, fan, hard drive, memory, motherboard, port, processor, RAM, ROM, serial port, parallel port, USB port
- Coordinate terms
- software
- Holonyms
- computer