keypunchn.
/ˈkiːpʌn(t)ʃ/, U.S. /ˈkiˌpən(t)ʃ/ Now chiefly historical.
1. A punch used to cut keys.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > piercing or boring tools > [noun] > punches
pointrel1476
punch1505
punk1670
puncher1681
dog-tooth1736
pommel1793
keypunch1850
bear1853
bell-punch1877
summary punch1934
1841 Ordnance Man. (U.S. Army) x. 231/1 (list) Forge for Repairs of Carriages... Limber Box... 1 Square hand punch... 1 Round do... 1 Prick punch... 1 Key do.]
1850 Ordnance Man. (U.S. Army) (ed. 2) xi. 317 (table) Contents of Limber Chest of Forge... Square hand punch... Round hand punch... Centre punch... Key punch.
1897 Railway & Locomotive Engin. Dec. 920/1 The dies are made to suit several sizes of bolts, and are used with the cotter or key punch.
1917 Educ. Bull. (Indiana State Board Educ.) 322/3 Tools used... Alligator wrenches. Pipe wrenches. Pipe cutter. Key punch.
1994 J. E. Rathjen Locksmithing iii. 30 Locksmith Automotive Tools... Curtis clipper (portable key punch for auto keys).
2. A device that punches a pattern of holes or notches in cards or paper tape in accordance with a prescribed code, so that the pattern represents data entered using a keyboard.
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society > computing and information technology > hardware > secondary storage > [noun] > punch card or tape > punching device
hand punch1803
keypunch1903
summary punch1934
tape punch1947
keypuncher1965
1903 Amer. Gas-Light Jrnl. 9 Feb. 211/1 There are two forms of punches..the gang punch, which will punch several holes at once, and a key punch, with a keyboard comparable to a typewriter.
1940 W. J. Eckert Punched Card Methods Sci. Computation ii. 17 A motor-driven duplicating key punch attached by an electric cable to the tabulator.
1948 Math. Tables & Other Aids Computation 3 127 Data, transferred by keypunch operators onto teletype tapes.
1970 Honey June 18/2 (advt.) A keypunch operator..prepares the cards that tell computers what to do.
1988 D. Carpenter God's Bedfellows vi. 141 They are dying to hire groundsmen, library shelvers, and keypunch operators.
2009 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 8 Feb. (Business section) 2/2 This involved long hours of entering data on keypunch cards... Hours later, she'd get a big sheaf of accordion-folded printouts in return.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
keypunchv.
/ˈkiːpʌn(t)ʃ/, U.S. /ˈkiˌpən(t)ʃ/ Now chiefly historical.
1.
a. transitive. To produce holes or notches in (a card, or paper tape) by means of a keypunch.
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society > computing and information technology > hardware > secondary storage > punch [verb (transitive)]
hole1911
pre-punch1947
overpunch1973
keypunch1975
1908 Business Method Post-Office Dept. (Senate Rep. No. 201, 60th Congr. 1st Sess.) 164 White cards would be ‘key’ punched from particulars on such paid orders.
1947 Jrnl. Chem. Educ. 24 62/1 A master table of cards, bearing x and f(x), is key-punched from printed tables.
1975 Computerworld 10 Sept. 54/4 It was more efficient to wait for the values and keypunch the cards only once.
2006 S. M. De Gyurky & M. A. Tarbell Cognitive Dynamics Computer Sci. xiv. 229 Finally, you commented the code with the same pencil, before keypunching the cards and submitting them to an operator.
b. transitive. To put (data) into the form of punched cards or tape by means of a keypunch.
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society > computing and information technology > hardware > secondary storage > punch [verb (transitive)] > put into form of
punch1864
keypunch1959
1959 Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery 6 13 The completed output definition form is..keypunched directly into cards.
1971 Computers & Humanities 5 304 The computer phase of the project consists of key-punching an Old Church Slavonic-English composite glossary.
1973 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 211 319 There have been thousands of lines of poetry..keypunched in order to produce concordances.
2. intransitive. To operate or use a keypunch.
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society > computing and information technology > hardware > secondary storage > use punch [verb (intransitive)]
summary punch1949
keypunch1951
1951 Chicago Tribune 28 Nov. iii. 20/4 (advt.) Learn to Keypunch. We will train several young girls to operate I.B.M. keypunch machines.
1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing iii. 59 In keypunching for automatic data processing, checking methods other than verification punching are normally used.
2010 S. Cushing Blues Before Sunrise 120 I learned how to keypunch.
Derivatives
ˈkeypunched adj.
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1945 Accounting Rev. 20 221/1 Some manufacturers..print their entire shipping papers with the aid of key-punched tabulating cards.
1966 U.S. Patent 3,229,599 2 A keypunched tape is shown.
2011 Defense Acquisitions (U.S. Govt. Accountability Office) 160 Verifying the accuracy of a sample of keypunched questionnaires.
ˈkeypunchable adj. now rare capable of being represented on punched cards or paper tape.
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1966 College Music Symp. 6 149 A keypunchable notation for the Liber Usualis.
1980 C. E. Mackenzie Coded Char. Sets xxvi. 470 All input representations..are keypunchable with single key depressions (that is, they do not require multipunching).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1850v.1908