Definition of "robot" []

• A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance. (noun)
• A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control. (noun)
• A person who works mechanically without original thought, especially one who responds automatically to the commands of others. (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.

• "The term robot derives from the Czech word robit, meaning "work," and came into wide use in 1923 when Karl Capek wrote a play R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), in which mechanical beings did all the work for man."
• "The word "robot" comes from the Czech word "robotnik", meaning serf, or"
• "But the space program uses the term robot broadly — and the humor has been a little broad, too."