typewriter

Etymology

From type + writer.

noun

1. A device, at least partially mechanical, used to print text by pressing keys that cause type to be impressed through an inked ribbon onto paper.
2. (archaic) One who uses a typewriter; a typist.
   The typewriter got up and disappeared out a back door, and soon she come back with a man, and he said, "Can I be of some help, Mr. Higgens?" 1953, Mike Harris, The Southpaw
3. (US, dated, slang) A machine gun or submachine gun (from the noise it makes when firing).
   The battle had opened in earnest. From the wooded ridge came in reply the clacking of "typewriters,” and bullets whined over our heads. 1973, Edgar B. Jackson, Fall Out to the Right of the Road!, page 321
   It was like sinking to sleep in a soft, dry bed with a big drink of brandy in you after you're dog-tired from a tour of duty on the firing-step, or slipping into a warm bath when you're lousy-dirty and chilled to the bone from crawling through mud and filth and dodging flares and 'typewriter' bullets half the night. 1996, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Virtuous vampires, page 250
   Why, any day I'd go up against a typewriter, with a forty-five. One shot I'd need and there'd be time for three while he was getting that damn' thing swung around and pointed 2001, Fredric Brown, Ben Yalow, From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown, page 234
   Fortunately we were on the edge of a shallow shell hole when the sentry caught our movements and Fritz cut loose with the "typewriters." 2005, R. Derby Holmes, A Yankee in the Trenches, page 60
4. A prank in which fingers are jabbed roughly onto someone's chest followed by striking them over the ear in imitation of using an old-fashioned typewriter.