Definition of "feedback" []

• The return of a portion of the output of a process or system to the input, especially when used to maintain performance or to control a system or process. (noun)
• The portion of the output so returned. (noun)
• Sound created when a transducer such as a microphone or electric guitar picks up sound from a speaker connected to an amplifier and regenerates it back through the amplifier. (noun)
• The return of information about the result of a process or activity; an evaluative response: asked the students for feedback on the new curriculum. (noun)
• The process by which a system, often biological or ecological, is modulated, controlled, or changed by the product, output, or response it produces. (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.

• "For the consumer, it's less important that armies of geeks get to play with data clouds and mashing data and getting to flog their widgets than it is to have working systems that really take serious feedback and deliver serious and useable information which simply * has* to start with * acknowledgement of feedback and digesting and mirroring of feedback*."
• "Things that irritate me …. hard to reach anyone at customer service; rules governing feedback should be tightened up and enforced … too many people wait to get feedback from the buyer before giving feedback, and if the feedback is negative, retaliate with bad feedback."
• "All systems appear to show evidence of what we label feedback."