teletypewriter

n. printer of telegraph messages

A teleprinter (teletypewriter, Teletype or TTY for TeleTYpe/TeleTYpewriter) is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel, often just a pair of wires. The most modern form of these devices are fully electronic and use a screen instead of a printer. These teletypewriters are still in use by the deaf for typed communications over the telephone, usually called a TDD (Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf) or TTY (although TTY, as indicated in the previous paragraph, refers to teleprinters in general).
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Noun
1. a character printer connected to a telegraph that operates like a typewriter
(synonym) teleprinter, teletype machine, telex, telex machine
(hypernym) character printer, character-at-a-time printer, serial printer

A printing telegraph instrument that has a signal-actuated mechanism for automatically printing received messages. Note 1: A TTY may have a keyboard similar to that of a typewriter for sending messages. (188 ) Note 2: Radio circuits carrying TTY traffic are called "RTTY circuits" or "RATT circuits."

<hardware> (Nearly always abbreviated to "teletype" or "tty") An obsolete kind of terminal, with a noisy mechanical printer for output, a very limited character set, and poor print quality.
See also bit-paired keyboard.
(2000-04-02)