machine Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks
  2. noun an efficient person
    • the boxer was a magnificent fighting machine
  3. noun an intricate organization that accomplishes its goals efficiently
    • the war machine
  4. noun a device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point
    simple machine.
  5. noun a group that controls the activities of a political party
    political machine.
    • he was endorsed by the Democratic machine
  6. noun a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine
    car; motorcar; automobile; auto.
    • he needs a car to get to work
  7. verb turn, shape, mold, or otherwise finish by machinery
  8. verb make by machinery
    • The Americans were machining while others still hand-made cars

WordNet

Ma*chine" noun
Etymology
F., fr. L. machina machine, engine, device, trick, Gr. , from means, expedient. Cf. Mechanic.
Definitions
  1. In general, any combination of bodies so connected that their relative motions are constrained, and by means of which force and motion may be transmitted and modified, as a screw and its nut, or a lever arranged to turn about a fulcrum or a pulley about its pivot, etc.; especially, a construction, more or less complex, consisting of a combination of moving parts, or simple mechanical elements, as wheels, levers, cams, etc., with their supports and connecting framework, calculated to constitute a prime mover, or to receive force and motion from a prime mover or from another machine, and transmit, modify, and apply them to the production of some desired mechanical effect or work, as weaving by a loom, or the excitation of electricity by an electrical machine. ✍ The term machine is most commonly applied to such pieces of mechanism as are used in the industrial arts, for mechanically shaping, dressing, and combining materials for various purposes, as in the manufacture of cloth, etc. Where the effect is chemical, or other than mechanical, the contrivance is usually denominated an apparatus, not a machine; as, a bleaching apparatus. Many large, powerful, or specially important pieces of mechanism are called engines; as, a steam engine, fire engine, graduating engine, etc. Although there is no well-settled distinction between the terms engine and machine among practical men, there is a tendency to restrict the application of the former to contrivances in which the operating part is not distinct from the motor.
  2. Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle. Dryden. Southey. Thackeray.
  3. A person who acts mechanically or at will of another.
  4. A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine.
    The whole machine of government ought not to bear upon the people with a weight so heavy and oppressive. Landor.
  5. A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends. Political Cant
  6. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit. Addison.
Ma*chine" transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Machined ; present participle & verbal noun Machining
Definitions
  1. To subject to the action of machinery; to effect by aid of machinery; to print with a printing machine.

Webster 1913