factor

plural factors · alternative archaic factour

1. obsoleteA doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.

   The factor of the trading post bought the furs.

2. An agent or representative; a reseller or distributor (sometimes with a private label); a consignee.

   My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled / That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.

   c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   3 more examples

   And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors, seeke for some other adherent then my selfe, forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias, onely by the conduct and direction of their factors, of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 21, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   What does he therefore, but resolvs to give over toyling, and to find himself out som factor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; som Divine of note and estimation that must be.

   1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC

   Motor factors — Good factors will stock all of the more important components which wear out relatively quickly.

   1985, Haynes Owners Workshop Manual, BMW

3. lawA commission agent.
4. lawA person or business organization that provides money for another's new business venture; one who finances another's business.
5. lawA business organization that lends money on accounts receivable or buys and collects accounts receivable.
6. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result.

   The economy was a factor in this year's budget figures.

   3 more examples

   The greatest factor in the decision was the need for public transportation.

   1864-1898, Herbert Spencer, Principles of Biology the material and dynamical factors of nutrition

   The UN, for its part, has suggested eating insects as a way of feeding those extra mouths, which may put the frankenmeat ick factor in perspective.

   2013 August 6, John Michael McGrath, “The Frankenmeat of the Future”, in Hazlitt

7. mathematicsAny of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.

   3 is a factor of 12, as are 2, 4 and 6.

   3 more examples

   The factors of the Klein four-group are both cyclic of order 2.

   The formula adjusts for region and season by multiplying by a prescribed factor for each.

   The first thousand primes[…]marched in order before him[…]the complete sequence of all those numbers that possessed no factors except themselves and unity.

   1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 38

8. causal analysisInfluence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence.

   The launch temperature was a factor of the Challenger disaster.

   1 more example

   Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems— […]. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.

   2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200

9. economicsA resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.

   1 more example

   The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them[…]is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.[…]current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

   2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68

10. ScotlandA steward or bailiff of an estate.

    the factor was so scrupulous, as to keep the whole thing from his master, the lord chamberlain

    1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC

present singular third person factors · participle present factoring · participle past factored · past factored · alternative archaic factour

1. transitiveTo find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).
2. transitiveTo rewrite an expression as the product of its factors.
3. intransitiveTo be a product of other objects.
4. transitivebusinessTo sell a debt or debts to an agent (the factor) to collect.

plural Factors

1. A surname.