prototype UK /ˈpɹəʊtətaɪp/US /ˈpɹoʊtəˌtaɪp/noun 5verb 2forms 3 noun5 •An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models.Only one manuscript of Plautus seems to have escaped the general wreck of ancient literature; and it served as the prototype to all the manuscripts at present extant. — 1839 •An early sample or model built to test a concept or process.The prototype had loose wires and rough edges, but it worked. •An instance of a category or a concept that combines its most representative attributes.A robin is a prototype of a bird; a penguin is not. •A declaration of a function that specifies the name, return type, and parameters, but none of the body or actual code. •A type of race car, a racing sports car not based on a production car. A 4-wheeled cockpit-seating car built especially for racing on sports car circuits, that does not use the silhouette related to a consumer road car. verb2 •To create a prototype of.In short, he has purposely perverted the whole case from beginning to end, and distorted it in such a manner, as not to be prototyped except by his own mind; […] — 1807 •(rare) To imitate or emulate. formsprototyped · prototyping · prototypes
