industrial

Etymology

From French industriel.

adj

1. Of or relating to industry, notably manufacturing.
   The industrial segment of the economy has seen troubles lately.
   Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles. 2013-06-29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29
2. Produced by such industry.
   Handicraft is less standardized then industrial products, hence less artistic or rather flawless.
3. Used by such industry.
   More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel. 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
4. Suitable for use in such industry; industrial-grade.
   This is an industrial product—it's much too strong for home use.
5. Massive in scale or quantity.
6. Employed as manpower by such industry.
   Come, all ye workers, from every land, / Come, join in the grand industrial band; / Then we our share of this earth shall demand. 1913, “There Is Power in a Union”, in Little Red Songbook, performed by Joe Hill
7. (of a society or country) Having many industries; industrialized.
   Italy is a part-industrial, part-rural nation.
   Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless. 2013-07-20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
8. (music) Belonging or pertaining to the genre of industrial music.
   a track with clashing industrial beats

noun

1. (dated, 19th-mid 20th century) An employee in industry.
2. (business) An enterprise producing tangible goods or providing certain services to industrial companies.
3. (finance) A bond or stock issued by such a company.
4. (film) A film made for use within an industry, not for a movie-going audience.
   Actor, director, and producer for three decades offers coaching and directing in scenes, improves, cold copy, script analysis, commercials, voice-overs, industrials, film, and stage. 2012, Stuart J. Scesney, How to Enter the Business of Commercial Modeling and Acting Without Getting Ripped Off
5. (informal, uncountable) Short for industrial music.
   I wish they'd play more industrial in this club.
6. (informal) Short for industrial piercing.