English Explanatory Dictionary

machine

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect.
  2. A vehicle operated mechanically, such as an automobile or an airplane.
  3. An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail.
  4. A computer.
  5. A person or organisation that seemingly acts like a machine, being particularly efficient, single-minded, or unemotional.
  6. Especially, the group that controls a political or similar organization; a combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use.
  7. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.
  8. The system of special interest groups that supports a political party, especially in urban areas.
  9. Penis.
  10. A contrivance in the Ancient Greek theatre for indicating a change of scene, by means of which a god might cross the stage or deliver a divine message; the deus ex machina.
  11. A bathing machine.
verb
  1. To make by machinery.
  2. To shape or finish by machinery; (usually, more specifically) to shape subtractively by metal-cutting with machine-controlled toolpaths.

Pronunciation

/məˈʃiːn/ En-uk-machine.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-machine.wav en-us-machine.ogg

Word forms

machine machines machining machined

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *megʰ-der.? Doric Greek μηχᾰνή (mēkhănḗ) Doric Greek μᾱχᾰνᾱ́ (mākhănā́)bor. Latin māchinabor. Middle French machinebor. English machine Borrowed from Middle French machine, from Latin māchina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), from Doric Greek μᾱχᾰνᾱ́ (mākhănā́), cognate with Attic Greek μηχᾰνή (mēkhănḗ, “a machine, engine, contrivance, device”), from which comes mechanical. Displaced native Old English searu.

Synonyms

machine engine

Related words

Turing machine state machine virtual machine tool :Category:Machines Outline of machines on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Derived words

accounting machine adding machine antimachine arcwall machine ATM machine Atwood machine Atwood's machine automated machine learning automated teller machine automatic data processing machine automatic teller machine baby machine ball machine bank machine biomachine bookkeeping machine bread machine business machine carding machine cash machine claw machine coffee machine compound machine copy machine cornucopia machine dance machine data processing machine deflavorizing machine deus ex machina dictation machine Ditto machine drum machine drying machine DVD-R machine dynamo-electric machine Enigma machine epsilon-machine exercise machine fax machine femtomachine finite-state machine fire machine flying machine fog machine forest machine forestry machine fruit machine fucking machine fuckmachine gaming machine ghost in the machine goal machine ground effect machine ground-effect machine gumball machine Harvard machine heart-lung machine Hollerith machine hug machine ice machine
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