process

Noun

process (plural processes)

1. A series of events leading to a result or product.
   • This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.
   • 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.2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City”, in BBC Sport
2. The set of procedures used in the manufacture of a product, especially 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...
3. A path or succession of states through which a system passes.
   • 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.2012 January, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2012, page 23
4. Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
5. Documents issued by a court in the course of a lawsuit or action at law, such as a summons, mandate, or writ.
   • But if either at Calling by the Clerk, after the Session Bell, or before the Ordinary by the Roll, an Advocat compears, and craves to be Marked for the Defender, and to see the Process; The Clerk in the first Case, and the Judge in the second, will allow him to see it1711, John Spotiswood, The Form of Process, section 39
6. An outgrowth of tissue arising above a surface, such as might form part of a joint or the attachment point for a muscle.
7. An executable task or program.
8. The centre mark that players aim at in the game of squails.

Verb (1)

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

1. (transitive) To perform a particular process on a thing.
   • Processing the harvested cocoons begins with grading and then boiling them in soapy water to soften the sericin that binds the fibers together.2026, Elise Young, “Yagaa: Reviving Sericulture in Southern Mexico”, in Spin Off, volume L, number 1, page 16
2. (transitive) To retrieve, store, classify, manipulate, transmit etc. (data, signals, etc.), especially using computer techniques.
   • We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.
   • If you process you own digital files, it's as time consuming, or maybe even more time consuming, than it is to process and print your own film.2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 92
3. (figuratively, transitive) To think about a piece of information, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it in a modified state.
   • I didn't know she had a criminal record. That will take me a while to process.
4. (transitive) To develop photographic film.
5. (transitive) To take legal proceedings against.
   • When I saw that he would not let me alone, I processed him for £12. My mother was with his brother John, and he allowed her six guineas for clothes; and if she did not want the money, he would allow it to me in the rent, and I made him pay that when he would not leave me alone.1845, Report from Her Majesty's Commissioners of inquiry into the state of the law and practice in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland

Verb (2)

UK/pɹəˈsɛs/Australia/pɹəˈses/

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

1. To walk in a procession, especially in a liturgical context.
   • Prayers completed and Psalms ending, patriarch, emperor, and their sumptuously clad entourages move past the open, silver-clad wings of the Imperial Door and process into the crowded nave and continue to the sanctuary at the east.2004, Robert S. Nelson, chapter 1, in Hagia Sophia, 1850–1950: Holy Wisdom Modern Monument, page 13