/di strib"yeuh teuhr/ , n.
1. a person or thing that distributes.
2. Com.
a. a person, firm, etc., engaged in the general distribution or marketing of some article or class of goods.
b. a wholesaler who has exclusive rights to market, within a given territory, the goods of a manufacturer or company.
3. Auto. , Mach. a device in a multicylinder engine that distributes the igniting voltage to the spark plugs in a definite sequence.
4. Print.
a. (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.
b. Also called distributor bar . (in a Linotype) a bar with keylike cuts along its length, for sorting matrices into their proper magazines after type has been cast.
Also, distributer .
[ 1520-30; distributor. See DISTRIBUTE, -TOR ]