shrink-wrapped software
- noun
- /ʃrɪŋk ræpt ˈsɔftwɛr/
:
software envasado al vacío
Examples
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Shrink-wrapped software contains plenty of proprietary information, but that information does not relate to programming techniques.
Academic text (2018) -
"SaaS provides the complete infrastructure, software, and solution stack: ... it is the cloud-based equivalent of shrink-wrapped software."
Academic text (2018) -
Many consumers prefer buying shrink-wrapped software because it includes a physical product and user manuals.
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At the electronics store, I found several boxes of shrink-wrapped software for gaming PCs on sale.
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The company switched from selling shrink-wrapped software to offering downloadable versions to reduce costs.
Surface Forms
Morphology
shrink-wrapped + software
The phrase is compositionally built from 'shrink-wrapped' (literally wrapped using shrink film) + 'software', so a learner who knows the constituent words can plausibly infer it means software sold as a physically packaged, sealed product. However, understanding the specific retail/packaging practice of 'shrink-wrapping' is somewhat technical and culturally specific, so the relation is inferable but not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Shrink-wrapped software comes from how programs were sold: the software came in a box that was shrink-wrapped, which means covered in tight plastic called 'shrink wrap'. Because the box was ready to buy in stores, the phrase now means a boxed program sold as a 'physical product'.
