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Synonyms

assembly line

American  

noun

  1. an arrangement of machines, tools, and workers in which a product is assembled by having each perform a specific, successive operation on an incomplete unit as it passes by in a series of stages organized in a direct line.

assembly line British  

noun

  1. a sequence of machines, tools, operations, workers, etc, in a factory, arranged so that at each stage a further process is carried out

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
assembly line Cultural  

  1. A line of factory workers and equipment along which a product being assembled passes consecutively from operation to operation until completed.

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Assembly lines are found in many industries but are particularly associated with automobile manufacturing.

Etymology

Origin of assembly line

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The assembly lines in Houston employ hundreds of people and are tiny relative to those in Asia, where facilities may have hundreds of thousands of people making iPhones.

From The Wall Street Journal

For starters, current robots aren’t built on an assembly line and likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

From Barron's

As the U.S. assembly line ramps up, it will meet local demand, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal

Together with Foxconn, it has built a modest assembly line in Houston, where it makes AI servers, which will be used to power more AI features that Apple adds to its devices.

From The Wall Street Journal

In Chipotle’s case, Ells freely admits his muse was taquerías in San Francisco’s Mission District that prepped burritos in the assembly line manner and size his company would soon imitate.

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.