ibm

name

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of International Business Machines.

   “"I was one of them," recalled Mr. Detmer, who is now 47. "When I graduated from high school in 1966, I got my first job working on the assembly line at the I.B.M. plant, where I earned $2 an hour putting together mainframe computers.”

   “The study found that U.S. technology company IBM had by far the largest number of AI-related patents, with 8,920.”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of International Brotherhood of Magicians.
3. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc.

noun

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of intercontinental ballistic missile.

   “They see this last possibility in an international agreement to stop further atomic and thermonuclear bomb tests and halt the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (IBMs).”

   “Today we need a defense against IBM attack. When as chief of R&D I urged Army Ordnance to develop an antimissile missile, I heard repeatedly that you can't hit a bullet with a bullet, so it is impossible to develop such a missile.”

   “Thus, they limit to a strictly defined number the quantity of armed IBMs in the USSR and the United States, as well as ballistic missiles of submarines.”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of inclusion body myositis.
3. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)A company that dominates its field.

   “Univac was the IBM of the computer industry's incipiency; in 1952 Univac had virtually 100% of the market.”

   “First, to Sperry Univac, the descendent^([sic]) of the first real computer company, which might have become the IBM of the industry had it not blown its early lead;”

   “The US lead was mainly due to one firm, the IBM of its small, specialized field: Cray Research Inc.”