keypunch

plural keypunches

1. computingA mechanical device whose keys are pressed, individually or in combination, to punch holes in punched cards or paper tape that correspond to particular characters.

   In an admirable combination of the skills of the scientist and the sensitivity of the artist, he mapped hundreds of thousands of images through a keypunch data-processing system and then tried to understand the meanings of the patterns that emerged independent of his own classifications.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 107

2. computingAn electric machine with a keyboard that has the same function.

present singular third person keypunches · participle present keypunching · participle past keypunched · past keypunched

1. To use such a device or machine