FACTOR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Factor

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/fˈæktər/ Listen

noun

Factor n.

(Law) One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the possession and control of the goods; and in these respects he differs from a broker. "My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled That owes me for a hundred tun of wine."

A steward or bailiff of an estate. (Scot.)

(Math.) One of the elements or quantities which, when multiplied together, form a product.

One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result; a constituent; a contributory cause. "The materal and dynamical factors of nutrition."

verb

Factor v. t. (past & past part. factored; pres. part. factoring) (Mach.) To resolve (a quantity) into its factors.

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Etymology of 'Factor'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Factor" Quotes from Famous Books

... this information had been given confidentially to the chief factor of the port, an Englishman, whose business lay in palm-oil, ground-nuts, ivory, and other African products, and who was not supposed to have any connection whatever with the slave-trade. On the contrary, he was one of those who lent his aid to its suppression: giving every assistance to ...

— Ran Away to Sea • Mayne Reid

... gradually asserted their supremacy in the air. In all parts of the globe, in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, in Africa, the airman has been an indispensable adjunct of the fighting forces. Truly it may be said that mastery of the air is the indispensable factor of ...

— The Mastery of the Air • William J. Claxton

... of the migration of 1879 were not far to seek. The economic cause was the agricultural depression in the lower Mississippi Valley. But by far the most potent factor in effecting the movement was the treatment received by negroes at the hands of the South. More specifically, as expressed by the leaders of the movement and refugees themselves, they were a long series of oppression, injustice and violence extending over ...

— Negro Migration during the War • Emmett J. Scott

... sun was setting in a magnificent arch of light and colour over the snow-clad hills and deep blue St. Lawrence gulf. David grasped at the sunset as an introductory factor. ...

— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1909 to 1922 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same from footstalks to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness, and take delight in outstripping our wonder." Doubtless light is the factor with the greatest effect in determining the position of the leaves on the stem, if not their shape. After plenty of light has been secured, any aid they may render the flowers in increasing their attractiveness ...

— Wild Flowers Worth Knowing • Neltje Blanchan et al

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