vending machine

noun

: a coin-operated machine for selling merchandise

Examples of vending machine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The point is to position AI as a generator of possibilities, not a vending machine of answers. Dan Fitzpatrick, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025 Viral success Inciardi launched her first vending machine filled with linocut prints of food in 2022 as a way to get quarters for her laundry machine. Karissa Waddick, USA Today, 6 Sep. 2025 Pop Mart livestreamed the toys and sold them online and in vending machines at a time when the Chinese population was under constant threat of Covid lockdowns. Eunice Yoon, CNBC, 25 Aug. 2025 David Ketchum, the goofy comic actor and prolific TV writer best known for squeezing into such stuffy spaces as vending machines, trash cans and airport lockers as Agent 13 on the fabled sitcom Get Smart, has died. Mike Barnes, HollywoodReporter, 22 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for vending machine

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1895, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of vending machine was circa 1895

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Cite this Entry

“Vending machine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vending%20machine. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.

Kids Definition

vending machine

noun
: a machine from which one may get merchandise after putting in coins

More from Merriam-Webster on vending machine

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