Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who is skilled in operating machine tools.
  • noun One who makes, operates, or repairs machines.
  • noun A warrant officer who assists the engineering officer in the engine room of a naval vessel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A constructor of machines and engines, or one versed in the principles of machines; in a general sense, one who invents or constructs mechanical devices of any kind.
  • noun One who tends or works a machine.
  • noun In the rating of the United States navy, an engine-room artificer or attendant.
  • noun In United States politics, an adherent of the machine, or a supporter of its methods.
  • noun In the history of art, one of those Italian painters of about the seventeenth century (a period of artistic decline) who worked mechanically or according to rigid rules.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A constructor of machines and engines; one versed in the principles of machines.
  • noun One skilled in the use of machine tools.
  • noun A person employed to shift scenery in a theater.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A constructor of machines and engines; one versed in the principles of machines.
  • noun One skilled in the use of machine tools.
  • noun A person who operates machinery.
  • noun A person employed to shift scenery in a theater.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a craftsman skilled in operating machine tools

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French machiniste, from machine 'machine, mechanical device', from Latin machina, from Ancient Greek μηχανή (mēkhanē, "machine").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word machinist.

Examples

  • The worker in the machine shop of today is no longer known as a machinist, because that term does not cover the present range of positions.

    Industrial Progress and Human Economics James Hartness

  • The workman in the old machine shop was known as a machinist, an apprentice or a helper.

    Industrial Progress and Human Economics James Hartness

  • The machinist was a widow, and her machine had been bought out of her husband's club and insurance money when he died twenty-one years before.

    London's Underworld Thomas Holmes 1882

  • Occupations with an increase in employment included some manufacturing and logistics occupations, such as machinist and transportation-worker supervisors.

    Manufacturing, Logistics See Job Gains Joe Light 2011

  • He's a journeyman, which is the top rating for machinist, meaning he can make almost any part in a Boeing airliner.

    CNN Transcript Jun 24, 2004 2004

  • Occupations with an increase in employment included some manufacturing and logistics occupations, such as machinist and transportation-worker supervisors.

    WSJ.com: What's News US 2011

  • This continuous assault has not been limited to farm labor, as proponents like to suggest, but includes many well compensated positions, (such as machinist and mechanic), for large companies.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2010

  • This continuous assault has not been limited to farm labor, as proponents like to suggest, but includes many well compensated positions, (such as machinist and mechanic), for large companies.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2010

  • This continuous assault has not been limited to farm labor, as proponents like to suggest, but includes many well compensated positions, (such as machinist and mechanic), for large companies.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2010

  • This continuous assault has not been limited to farm labor, as proponents like to suggest, but includes many well compensated positions, (such as machinist and mechanic), for large companies.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.