distributor: Meaning and Definition of

dis•trib•u•tor

Pronunciation: (di-strib'yu-tur), [key]
— n.
  1. a person or thing that distributes.
    1. a person, firm, etc., engaged in the general distribution or marketing of some article or class of goods.
    2. a wholesaler who has exclusive rights to market, within a given territory, the goods of a manufacturer or company.
  2. a device in a multicylinder engine that distributes the igniting voltage to the spark plugs in a definite sequence.
    1. (in a press) one of the rollers for spreading ink on the table, rolling it to a proper consistency, and transferring it to rollers that ink the form or plate.
    2. Also calleddistrib&prim;utor bar&sec;.(in a Linotype) a bar with keylike cuts along its length, for sorting matrices into their proper magazines after type has been cast.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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