Definition of "built-in" []

• Constructed as part of a larger unit; not detachable: a built-in cabinet. (adjective)
• Forming a permanent or essential element or quality: a built-in escape clause. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "These so-called built-in stabilizers increase the deficit but limit declines of after-tax income and purchasing power, economists Kenneth Arrow, Peter Diamond, William Sharpe, Eric Maskin and Robert Solow wrote."
• "The second mystery concerns how you have a built-in mechanism that enables you to be moved by something outside your control."
• "It has held without the built-in assurances provided by a parliamentary system."