From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgeneratorgen‧e‧ra‧tor /ˈdʒenəreɪtə $ -ər/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 TPEa machine that produces electricity an emergency generator2 a company that produces electricity3 something that produces something elsegenerator of good generators of income
Examples from the Corpus
generator• They put in new heating and air conditioning, carpeting and a generator.• In this phase, the most active generators of ideas were sociologists and psychologists.• Evidence of electrical power on main and stand-by systems has to be determined and generator or alternator functioning assessments must be made.• The Coliseum has several backup generators, and additional generators were also brought in, Trask said.• Andre Berry switches on a standard domestic vacuum cleaner powered by a petrol generator to collect material to repair an historic mound.• When the generator shuts off, they have no electricity.From Longman Business Dictionarygeneratorgen‧e‧ra‧tor /ˈdʒenəreɪtə-ər/ noun [countable]1COMMERCEa product which makes a profit or has other advantagesThe company’s biggestprofit generator is its snack-food operation.The auto industry is a huge generator of employment and foreign exchange for Mexico.2COMPUTING a computer program that is used to produce a particular set of figures, results etcYou can use a report generator to obtain all data from the database.3MANUFACTURINGa machine that produces powerelectricity generatorswind generatorsthe stadium’s back-up generator (=one that can be used if the main generator stops working) 