process

plural processes

1. A series of events leading to a result or product.

   This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.

   3 more examples

   But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.

   2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City”, in BBC Sport

   Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […] In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.

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

   For each of the schemes discussed, there is the four-stage process of planning, funding, delivery and operations, in which the various parties involved might be the lead, a partner or an influencer.

   2019 October, John Glover, “Heathrow rail expansion”, in Modern Railways, page 73

2. businessThe set of procedures used in the manufacture of a product, especially in the food and chemical industries.

   1960, Mack Tyner, Process Engineering Calculations: Material and Energy Balances – Ordinarily a process plant will use a steam boiler to supply its process heat requirements and to drive a steam-turbine generator.

   1 more example

   1987, J. R. Richards, Principles of control system design in Modelling and control of fermentation processes – The words plant or process infer generally any dynamic system, be it primarily mechanical, electrical, or chemical process in nature, and may extend also to include social or economic systems.

3. A path or succession of states through which a system passes.

   We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.

   2012 January 28, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2012, page 23

4. biologySuccessive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
5. lawDocuments issued by a court in the course of a lawsuit or action at law, such as a summons, mandate, or writ.

   But if either at Calling by the Clerk, after the Session Bell, or before the Ordinary by the Roll, an Advocat compears, and craves to be Marked for the Defender, and to see the Process; The Clerk in the first Case, and the Judge in the second, will allow him to see it

   1711, John Spotiswood, The Form of Process, section 39

6. anatomyAn outgrowth of tissue arising above a surface, such as might form part of a joint or the attachment point for a muscle.
7. computingAn executable task or program.
8. The centre mark that players aim at in the game of squails.

present singular third person processes · participle present processing · participle past processed · past processed

1. transitiveTo perform a particular process on a thing.

   Processing the harvested cocoons begins with grading and then boiling them in soapy water to soften the sericin that binds the fibers together.

   2026, Elise Young, “Yagaa: Reviving Sericulture in Southern Mexico”, in Spin Off, volume L, number 1, page 16

2. transitiveTo retrieve, store, classify, manipulate, transmit etc. (data, signals, etc.), especially using computer techniques.

   We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.

   2 more examples

   If you process you own digital files, it's as time consuming, or maybe even more time consuming, than it is to process and print your own film.

   2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 92

   CBP told CNN it currently processes “nearly 4 million duty-free de minimis shipments a day.”

   2025 May 2, Elisabeth Buchwald and Ramishah Maruf, “A massive tariff on millions of Americans’ purchases just went into effect — cue the chaos”, in CNN

3. figurativelytransitiveTo think about a piece of information, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it in a modified state.

   I didn't know she had a criminal record. That will take me a while to process.

4. transitiveartsTo develop photographic film.
5. transitivelawTo take legal proceedings against.

   When I saw that he would not let me alone, I processed him for £12. My mother was with his brother John, and he allowed her six guineas for clothes; and if she did not want the money, he would allow it to me in the rent, and I made him pay that when he would not leave me alone.

   1845, Report from Her Majesty's Commissioners of inquiry into the state of the law and practice in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland

present singular third person processes · participle present processing · participle past processed · past processed

1. To walk in a procession, especially in a liturgical context.

   Prayers completed and Psalms ending, patriarch, emperor, and their sumptuously clad entourages move past the open, silver-clad wings of the Imperial Door and process into the crowded nave and continue to the sanctuary at the east.

   2004, Robert S. Nelson, chapter 1, in Hagia Sophia, 1850–1950: Holy Wisdom Modern Monument, page 13