mac

plural macs

1. abbreviationclippingClipping of mackintosh (“a raincoat”).

   Standing in the dock at Southampton / Trying to get to Holland or France / The man in the mac said / You've got to go back / You know they didn't even give us a chance

   1969, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, 0:04 from the start, in The Ballad of John and Yoko (music video), The Beatles (actor), Vevo, published 2017

2. AustraliaCanadaUKUSderogatoryethnicoffensiveslangslurA person of Scottish descent (used in driving culture to denigrate someone for poor/slow/amateurish driving responses).

1. CanadaUSabbreviationclippingslanguncountableClipping of macaroni.

   Is there any mac and cheese left?

   2 more examples

   Who wrote "kick me" on my back? Who put a spider in my mac?

   1998, Dennis Doyle, edited by Alison Sage, Treasury of Children's Poetry, Shirley Said, page 177

   Nothing tastes better to me than a big ol' bowl of super creamy, cheesy mac!

   2019, Gail Green, Marci Peschke, Lunch Recipe Queen (Kylie Jean), North Mankato, Minn.: Picture Window Books, Capstone, →ISBN, page 6

plural Macs

1. USinformalUsed to address a man whose name is unknown.

   Have you got a light, Mac?

   1 more example

   TIME was, the stereotypical New York cabdriver was a gabby if slightly gruff man with a Brooklyn accent who knew every pothole in every street in every borough and greeted people with the world-weary query, "Where to, Mac?"

   1998 May 24, Bearak, Barry, “The Nation: Parallel Universe; Listen Up, Out There. Here's What Cabbies Think of You.”, in The New York Times, section 4, page 1

   Synonyms: John

plural Macs

1. A diminutive of the male given name Max.
2. CanadaUSA diminutive for a person with a surname that starts with "Mac" or "Mc".

   Synonyms: Macca

plural Macs

1. A Macintosh computer (made by Apple Inc.).

   If you invest the time to learn one Windows or Mac program, you'll automatically have mastered the basic skills to use hundreds of others.

   1993, “The Newest Appliance”, in U.S. News & World Report, volume 115, number 21, page 90

   5 more examples

   Although our Macs served us well, in those early, dark years Macintosh users were effectively excommunicated by the computer establishment.

   1987, InfoWorld, volume 9, number 37, page 46

   Built by Matthew Weed, a blind political science and history major, and Victor Grigorieff, a computer science and psychology major, the system is based on a Macintosh IIfx, although it can run on earlier models, since each Mac program has a similar interface.

   1991, “Breaking Communications Barriers”, in Compute!, volume 13, number 9, pages 28–31

   Apple, IBM, and Motorola have teamed up to produce this 32-bit chip that will be used in future Apple Macintoshes and IBM PCs. PowerPC systems will run Mac or Unix programs, and possibly Windows software in the future.

   1993, “The New Microprocessors Powerchips”, in Popular Science, volume 243, number 1, page 58

   As this shift accelerates, finding software that works with a particular operating system will be less of a concern. People will be able to base decisions about which OS to use strictly on merit, and on personal preference. For me, if the choice is between struggling to configure every feature and being able to boot up and get to work, at long last I choose the Mac.

   2007, “Uninspiring Vista”, in Technology Review, volume 110, number 1, pages 72–4

   Oddly, the big difference didn't come in our user ratings, where we expected the famously friendly Mac interface to shine. Apple's popular commercials have painted the picture in stark terms: There are two types of people, Mac people and PC people.

   2008, Glenn Derene, “Mac VS. PC”, in Popular Mechanics, volume 185, number 5, page 86

1. informalMcMaster University

1. SingaporeslangMcDonald's

   Synonyms: Macs

1. USabbreviationacronymgovernmentAcronym of Military Airlift Command, formerly, one of three former divisions of the US airforce, the others being SAC and TAC.
2. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Military Armament Corporation.
3. abbreviationinitialismUNInitialism of Military Armistice Commission.

plural MACs

1. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablechemistryInitialism of maximum allowable concentration, the maximum concentration of a pollutant which is considered harmless to healthy adults during their working hours, assuming they breathe uncontaminated air at all other times.
2. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablecomputer securityInitialism of mandatory access control.
3. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablecomputingInitialism of media access control: the portion of Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 wireless, Bluetooth, FDDI, ATM, and Fibre Channel networks that controls which hardware devices have access to the media over which signals are sent.

   When operating on customer MAC (C-MAC) and service MAC (S-MAC) addresses, PBB uses a new backbone MAC (B-MAC) address. The B-MAC address is added at the edge of the PBB network, that is administered by a carrier VPN or a carrier-of-carriers VPN.

   2025 April 17, “Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and EVPN Integration Overview”, in Juniper Networks, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2025

4. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableaeronauticsInitialism of mean aerodynamic chord.
5. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableaeronauticsInitialism of mid-air collision.
6. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablecomputingInitialism of message authentication code.
7. abbreviationcountablehistoricalinitialismuncountableaeronauticsInitialism of merchant aircraft carrier.
8. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableliteratureInitialism of magnetic accelerator cannon.
9. UKabbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablecommunicationsInitialism of Migration Authorisation Code.
10. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableimmunologyInitialism of membrane attack complex, a part of the complement system of the innate immune system.
11. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablecomputingInitialism of multiply and accumulate, a hardware module found in digital signal processors which performs a multiplication and adds the result of that operation to an accumulator in the same cycle, used extensively in implementations of digital filters, transforms, and codecs.
12. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebiologyInitialism of Mycobacterium avium complex.
13. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableanesthesiologyInitialism of minimum alveolar concentration.
14. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableanesthesiologyInitialism of monitored anesthesia care.