machine definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (77)

American Heritage Dictionary (13)

noun A device consisting of fixed and moving parts that modifies mechanical energy and transmits it in a more useful form.
noun A simple device, such as a lever, a pulley, or an inclined plane, that alters the magnitude or direction, or both, of an applied force; a simple machine.
noun A system or device for doing work, as an automobile or a jackhammer, together with its power source and auxiliary equipment.

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Century Dictionary (54)

An engine; an instrument of force. With inward arms the dire machine [wooden horse] they load. Dryden, Æneid, ii. 25.
In mech., in general, any instrument for the conversion of motion. Thus, a machine may be designed to change rapid motion into slow motion, as a crow-bar; or it may be intended to convert a reciprocating rectilinear motion into a uniform circular motion, etc. The lever, the wedge, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the screw, and the inclined plane are termed the simple machines. In practical mechanics the word has a restricted meaning: a single device, as a hammer, chisel, crowbar, or saw, or a very simple combination of moving parts, as tongs, shears, pincers, etc., for manual use, although comprised in the strict technical definition of machine, is always called a tool (which see); a device for applying or converting natural molar motion, like that of falling water, or of winds (as a water-wheel or windmill), or for converting molecular motion into molar motion (as a steam-engine, gas-engine, air-engine, or electric engine), is more generally, though not uniformly, called a motor. The distinction between the words tool and machine becomes quite indefinite with increased complication of parts. Such machines as are used in shaping materials in the construction of the parts of other machines, and many of those which perform work, such as sawing, boring, planing, riveting, etc., formerly done only by hand and still performed manually to a greater or less extent, are variously called machines, machine-tools, engine-tools, or simply tools, although their structure may involve much complexity; the terms machine-tool and engine-tool are more frequently employed, the latter being preferable as being more in accord with best usage. Machines receive general or special names from the work they perform or are designed to execute, either with reference to departments of the arts or of industry, as agricultural machines, hydraulic machines, wood-working machines, etc., or to their specific work, as planing-machines, sawing-machines, mowing-machines, etc. This science will define a machine to be, not, as usual, an instrument by means of which we may change the direction and intensity of a given force, but an instrument by means of which we may change the direction and velocity of a given motion. Ampère, tr. by Willis.
A vehicle or conveyance, such as a coach, cab, gig, tricycle, bicycle, etc. [Great Britain.] A pair of bootikins will set out to-morrow morning in the machine that goes from the Queen's Head in the Gray's Inn Lane. Walpole, letters, IV. 12. (Davies.) He had taken a seat in the Portsmouth machine, and proposed to go to the Isle of Wight. Thackeray, Virginians, Ixii.

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He could even mention the oath she had made him swear, that he would never lift a hand to save her. — Conan the Defender
It seems to me that a driving machine should be a machine that drives something, just as a sewing machine is a machine that sews. — VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IX No 3
"If the marriage stuck, it would be one hell of a lever for legal machine recognition!" — Juxtaposition
Moriarty looked sharply at him. — Cyberbooks
Actually being told by a machine is another. — The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

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device · computer · instrument · engine · weapon · machinery · type · train · box · model · ship · service

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

French, from Old French, from Latin māchina, from Greek mākhanā, dialectal variant of mēkhanē; see magh- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (2)

= Dutch machine = German maschine = Danish maskine = Swedish maskin, from French machine = Spanish máquina = Portuguese maquina, machina = Italian macchina = Turkish makina, from Latin machĭna, a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick, from Greek μηχανή, a machine, engine, contrivance, device; cf. μη̄χος, means. Perhaps akin to Anglo-Saxon macian, English make: see make. Cf. mechanic, etc.
from Old French machiner, French machiner = Provencal machinar = Spanish Portuguese maquinar = Italian macchinare, from Latin machinari, Middle Latin also machinare, contrive, plan, devise, etc., from Latin machina, a machine, contrivance: see machine, n. Cf. machinate.

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