Noun

(en noun)

Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one.

* 1949 . Geneva Convention on Road Traffic

Every cycle shall be equipped with: [...] (b) an audible warning device consisting of a bell [...]

* {{quote-magazine, title=A better waterworks, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838

, page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.}}

A project or scheme, often designed to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice.

*

His device is against Babylon, to destroy it.

*

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

* 1827 Hallam, Henry, , Harper

Their recent device of demanding benevolences.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=

, title=Pixels or Perish, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine= citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

(rhetoric) A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device .

(senseid)(heraldry) A motto, emblem, or other mark used to distinguish the bearer from others. A device differs from a badge or cognizance primarily because as it is a personal distinction, and not a badge borne by members of the same house successively.

* 1736 . O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey. The Documentary History of the State of New York .

The devices of these savages are the serpent, the Deer, and the Small Acorn.

(archaic) Power of devising; invention; contrivance.

* 1824 . Landor, Walter Savage "King Henry IV and Sir Arnold Savage" from Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen , page 44

Moreover I must have instruments of mine own device , weighty, and exceeding costly

* 1976 . The Eagles, "Hotel California"

And she said,

"We are all prisoners here,

Of our own device "

(legal) An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark.

(printing) An image or logo denoting official or proprietary authority or provenience.

* 1943 United States Post Office Department. A Description of United States Postage Stamps / Issued by the Post Office Department from July 1, 1847, to April 1, 1945 [sic] , USGPO, Washington, p1:

Prior to the issuance of the first stamps, letters accepted by postmasters for dispatch were marked "Paid" by means of pen and ink or hand stamps of various designs. [...] To facilitate the handling of mail matter, some postmasters provided special stamps or devices for use on letters as evidence of the prepayment of postage.

(obsolete) A spectacle or show.

(Beaumont and Fletcher)

(obsolete) Opinion; decision.

Noun

(en noun)

Any device or object used to halt the motion of a door, as a large or heavy object, a wedge, or some piece of hardware fixed to the floor, door or wall.

(jocular) A large book, which by implication could be used to stop a door.

* 2010 , Jack Hitt, Is Sarah Palin Porn?'', Laura Flanders (editor), ''At The Tea Party: The Wing Nuts, Whack Jobs and Whitey-Whiteness of the New Republican Right... and Why We Should Take It Seriously , page 206,

Meanwhile, all the Democrats had to put forward that year was a doorstop called Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill .

(British) (in error for doorstep) A thick sandwich.

(Australia) An interview with a politician or other public figure (apparently informal or spontaneous but often planned), as they enter or leave a building.

* 2005 , , The Latham Diaries , page 106,

And television dominates this place — just look at Beazley tossing around cans of tomato soup at his morning doorstops outside Parliament House.

* 2006 , Troy Bramston, The Wran Era , page 244,

The six o?clock news was regarded as the pivotal point in the day. As the news was beginning, often the Premier would make himself available for a doorstop press conference.

* 2010 , Anne Tiernan, Patrick Weller, Learning to Be a Minister: Heroic Expectations, Practical Realities , page 218,

It was estimated, for example, that Treasurer Wayne Swan had given more than 250 interviews and doorstops by the end of his first year in office.