machine

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: ma=chine

CIDE DICTIONARY

machine, n. [F., fr. L. machina machine, engine, device, trick, Gr. mhchanh`, from mh^chos means, expedient. Cf. Mechanic.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  " 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 or device, 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."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle.  Dryden. Southey. Thackeray.  [1913 Webster]
•  A person who acts mechanically or at the will of another.  [1913 Webster]
•  A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine.  [1913 Webster]

  "The whole machine of government ought not to bear upon the people with a weight so heavy and oppressive."  [1913 Webster]
•  A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends; the Tammany machine.  [1913 Webster]
•  Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.  Addison.  [1913 Webster]

Elementary machine, a name sometimes given to one of the simple mechanical powers. See under Mechanical. -- Infernal machine. See under Infernal. -- Machine gun.See under Gun. -- Machine screw, a screw or bolt adapted for screwing into metal, in distinction from one which is designed especially to be screwed into wood. -- Machine shop, a workshop where machines are made, or where metal is shaped by cutting, filing, turning, etc. -- Machine tool, a machine for cutting or shaping wood, metal, etc., by means of a tool; especially, a machine, as a lathe, planer, drilling machine, etc., designed for a more or less general use in a machine shop, in distinction from a machine for producing a special article as in manufacturing. -- Machine twist, silken thread especially adapted for use in a sewing machine. -- Machine work, work done by a machine, in contradistinction to that done by hand labor.

machine, v. t. 

 To subject to the action of machinery; to make, cut, shape, or modify with a machine; to effect by aid of machinery; to print with a printing machine.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

machine, n. & v.
--n.
1 an apparatus using or applying mechanical power, having several parts each with a definite function and together performing certain kinds of work.
2 a particular kind of machine, esp. a vehicle, a piece of electrical or electronic apparatus, etc.
3 an instrument that transmits a force or directs its application.
4 the controlling system of an organization etc. (the party machine).
5 a person who acts mechanically and with apparent lack of emotion.
--v.tr. make or operate on with a machine (esp. in sewing or printing).

Idiom

machine code (or language) a computer language that a particular computer can respond to directly. machine-readable in a form that a computer can process. machine tool a mechanically operated tool for working on metal, wood, or plastics. machine-tooled
1 shaped by a machine tool.
2 (of artistic presentation etc.) precise, slick, esp. excessively so.

Etymology

F f. L machina f. Gk makhana Doric form of mekhane f. mekhos contrivance

THESAURUS

machine

American Party, Anti-Monopoly Party, Bull Moose Party, Bund, Communist Party, Composaline, Conservative Party, Constitutional Union Party, Democratic Party, Democratic-Republican Party, Diatype, Ditto, Elrod, Farmer-Labor Party, Federalist Party, Fotomatic, Fotosetter, Fototronic, Free Soil Party, Greenback Party, Intertype, Know-Nothing Party, Labour Party, Liberal Party, Liberal Republican Party, Liberty Party, Linotype, Monotype, Multigraph, National Republican Party, Photon, Populist Party, Progressive Party, Prohibition Party, Republican Party, Rochdale cooperative, Socialist Labor Party, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Tammany Hall, Teletype, Tory Party, Whig Party, Zip, addressing machine, alembic, alliance, anvil, apparatus, appliance, assemblage, association, auto, autocar, automaton, automobile, axis, band, bloc, boat, body, buggy, bus, cabal, caldron, camp, car, carve, chisel, city hall, clique, coalition, college, combination, combine, common market, confederacy, confederation, consumer cooperative, contraption, contrivance, convenience, convert, cooperative, cooperative society, corps, council, crate, credit union, crucible, cultivate, customs union, device, drive, duplicator, economic community, engine, enginery, extract, facility, faction, federation, fixture, free trade area, gadget, gang, gizmo, golem, group, grouping, grow, harvest, heap, hectograph, implement, instrument, jalopy, lathe, league, machinery, major party, make, manufacture, mechanical aid, mechanical device, mechanism, mechanize, melting pot, mill, mimeograph, mine, minor party, mob, mortar, motive power, motor, motor vehicle, motorcar, motorize, motorized vehicle, multiple party system, one-party system, opposition party, organization, partnership, party, party in power, phototypesetter, political machine, political party, power plant, power source, prime mover, process, pump, raise, rear, refine, retool, retort, ring, shape, sharpen, smelt, society, splinter party, stock ticker, system, teleprinter, teletypewriter, test tube, third party, ticker, tool, transducer, transformer, tub, two-party system, typewriter, union, utensil, utility, vehicle, voiture, wheels, wreck

ROGET THESAURUS

machine

Instrument

N instrument, machinery, mechanism, engineering, instrument, organ, tool, implement, utensil, machine, engine, lathe, gin, mill, air engine, caloric engine, heat engine, gear, tackle, tackling, rig, rigging, apparatus, appliances, plant, materiel, harness, trappings, fittings, accouterments, barde, equipment, equipmentage, appointments, furniture, upholstery, chattels, paraphernalia, mechanical powers, lever, leverage, mechanical advantage, crow, crowbar, handspike, gavelock, jemmy, jimmy, arm, limb, wing, oar, paddle, pulley, wheel and axle, wheelwork, clockwork, wheels within wheels, pinion, crank, winch, cam, pedal, capstan, wheel, inclined plane, wedge, screw, spring, mainspring, can hook, glut, heald, heddle, jenny, parbuckle, sprag, water wheel, handle, hilt, haft, shaft, heft, shank, blade, trigger, tiller, helm, treadle, key, turnscrew, screwdriver, knocker, hammer, edge tool, borer, vice, teeth, nail, rope, peg, support, spoon, arms, oar, cardiograph, recapper, snowplow, tenpenny, votograph, instrumental, mechanical, machinal, brachial.

Party

N party, faction, side, denomination, communion, set, crew, band, horde, posse, phalanx, family, clan, team, tong, council, community, body, fellowship, sodality, solidarity, confraternity, familistere, familistery, brotherhood, sisterhood, knot, gang, clique, ring, circle, group, crowd, in-crowd, coterie, club, casino, machine, Tammany, Tammany Hall, corporation, corporate body, guild, establishment, company, copartnership, partnership, firm, house, joint concern, joint-stock company, cahoot, combine, trust, society, association, institute, institution, union, trades union, league, syndicate, alliance, Verein, Bund, Zollverein, combination, Turnverein, league offensive and defensive, alliance offensive and defensive, coalition, federation, confederation, confederacy, junto, cabal, camarilla, camorra, brigue, freemasonry, party spirit, Confederates, Conservatives, Democrats, Federalists, Federals, Freemason, Knight Templar, Kuklux, Kuklux Klan, KKK, Liberals, Luddites, Republicans, Socialists, Tories, Whigs staff, dramatis personae, in league, in partnership, in alliance, bonded together, banded together, linked, joined together, embattled, confederated, federative, joint, hand in hand, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, en masse, in the same boat.