Noun

(en noun)

(senseid)A mechanical device intended to make a task easier.

Equipment used in a profession, e.g., tools of the trade.

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

, volume=100, issue=2, page=106, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , 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.}}

Something to perform an operation; an instrument; a means.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.

(computing) A piece of software used to develop software or hardware, or to perform low-level operations.

A person or group which is used or controlled, usually unwittingly, by another person or group.

(slang) Penis.

(by extension, slang, pejorative) An obnoxious or uptight person.

Noun

(en noun)

Something invented.

* 1944 November 28, Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Meet Me in St. Louis , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:

Warren Sheffield is telephoning Rose long distance at half past six. Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention .

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-10-05, volume=409, issue=8856, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= The widening gyre , passage=British inventions have done more to influence the shape of the modern world than those of any other country. Many—football, the steam engine and Worcestershire sauce, to take a random selection—have spread pleasure, goodwill and prosperity. Others—the Maxim gun, the Shrapnel shell and jellied eels—have not.}}

The act of inventing.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,

The capacity to invent.

(music) A small, self-contained composition, particularly those in J.S. Bach’s Two-'' and ''Three-part Inventions .

* 1880 , (George Grove) (editor and entry author), , page 15, Invention:

INVENTION .?A term used by J. S. Bach, and probably by him only, for small pianoforte pieces?—?15 in 2 parts and 15 in 3 parts?—?each developing a single idea, and in some measure answering to the Impromptu of a later day.

(label) The act of discovering or finding; the act of finding out; discovery.