Factory

From Middle French factorie, from Medieval Latin factoria, from Latin factor. Compare Italian fattoria, Spanish factorÃa, Portuguese feitoria.

Full definition of factory

(plural factories)

(obsolete) A trading establishment, especially set up by merchants working in a foreign country.
(now rare) The position or state of being a factor.
A building or other place where manufacturing takes place.

1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 7, â€¦ St.â€‰Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 7, The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.

A device which produces or manufactures something.
(programming) In a computer program or library, a function, method, etc. which creates an object.

2010, Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi, William Bartholomew, Inside the Microsoft Build EngineThe task factory ... is the object that is responsible for creating instances of those tasks dynamically.