Definition of "industrial revolution" [industrial revolution]

• The complex of radical socioeconomic changes, such as the ones that took place in England in the late 18th century, that are brought about when extensive mechanization of production systems results in a shift from home-based hand manufacturing to large-scale factory production. (noun)

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.

• "Enlightenment and, to some extent, the industrial revolution brought about a revaluation of the signifi - cance of disease."
• "Despite battle and murder, and Puritan revolutions and Royalist restoration, and Protestant revolution and Hanoverian succession, and industrial revolution and democratic succession, and the rise and fall of the British Empire, and two world wars and the rise and fall of the Labour Party and Trades Union succession … despite all that there was still a Steyning in possession of Standingham Castle after over three centuries of accelerating social change."
• "But apart from the high incidence of tuberculosis during the time (1760-1850) covering both the industrial revolution and the romantic movement, disease, somatic as well as mental, received almost loving care by romantically inclined authors and opera librettists."