perforating machine (perforating mas hen")

1. A machine for stamping lines of holes or perforations in sheets of postage-stamps or paper leaves, as in a check-book or receipt book, to facilitate separation; a paper-perforating machine.-2. A machine for stamping the perforated ribbons of paper used with the rapid or other forms of automatic telegraphic machines.-3. A rock-drill or perforator. perforation (pėr-fō-ra's hon), n. [= F. per for a tion = Sp. per for a cion = Pg. per for ação = It. per for azione, The perforation of the body of the tree in several places. Bacon . 2. A hole bored; any hole or aperture pa ing through anything, or into the interior of a substance. Each bee, before it has had much practice, must lose some time in making each new perforation , especially when the perforation has to be made through both calyx and corolla. Darwin , Cro and Self Fertilisation, p. 433.