mechanical

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of or relating to machines or tools: mechanical skill.
2. adj. Operated or produced by a mechanism or machine: a mechanical toy dog.
3. adj. Of, relating to, or governed by mechanics.
4. adj. Performed or performing in an impersonal or machinelike manner; automatic: a droning, mechanical delivery of the speech.
5. adj. Relating to, produced by, or dominated by physical forces: the mechanical aspect of trumpet playing.
6. adj. Philosophy Interpreting and explaining the phenomena of the universe by referring to causally determined material forces; mechanistic.
7. adj. Of or relating to manual labor, its tools, and its skills.
8. n. Printing A layout consisting of type proofs, artwork, or both, exactly positioned and prepared for making an offset or other printing plate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Pertaining to or exhibiting constructive power; of or pertaining to mechanism or machinery; also, dependent upon the use of mechanism; of the nature or character of a machine or machinery: as, mechanical inventions or contrivances; to do something by mechanical means.
2. Machine-like; acting or actuated by or as if by machinery, or by fixed routine; lacking spontaneity, spirit, individuality, etc.; as applied to actions, automatic, instinctive, unconscious, etc.: as, the mechanical action of the heart; a mechanical musician.
3. Having the characteristics of that which is produced by machinery or is artificially contrived; artificial; not spontaneous; not genuine or of natural growth; lacking life or spirit; humdrum.
4. Of or pertaining to the material forces of nature acting on inanimate bodies or masses; specifically, pertaining to the principles or laws of mechanics: as, the mechanical effects of frost; the mechanical powers.
5. Effected by material force or forces; consisting in the play of material forces: as, mechanical pressure.
6. Exalting the material forces of the universe above the spiritual; subordinating the spiritual to the material; materialistic: as, the mechanical philosophy (specifically, atomism); a mechanical view of life.
7. Belonging to or characteristic of mechanics or artisans, or their class; mechanic-like; having the character or status of an artisan; hence (chiefly in old writings), mean, low, or vulgar.
8. Engaged in operating machines or machinery, or in superintending their operation: as, a mechanical engineer.
9. Exhibiting or indicating skill in contrivance, invention, or the use of tools and machines: as, a mechanical genius; a mechanical turn of mind.
10. Effected or controlled by physical forces that are not chemical: as, a mechanical mixture (that is, one in which the several ingredients still retain their identity, and are held together by no special force whether of cohesion or chemical attraction); mechanical decomposition.—
11. n. A mechanic.
12. n. plural The trade-name for common articles, such as overshoes, of vulcanized india-rubber, made by molding, and often of old reworked material.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.
2. adj. Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on mass).
3. adj. Related to mechanics (the design and construction of machines).
4. adj. Done by machine.
5. adj. Using mechanics (the design and construction of machines): being a machine.
6. adj. As if performed by a machine: lifeless or mindless.
7. adj. of a person Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.
8. adj. informal Handy with machines.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Pertaining to, governed by, or in accordance with, mechanics, or the laws of motion; pertaining to the quantitative relations of force and matter on a macroscopic scale, as distinguished from mental, vital, chemical, electrical, electronic, atomic etc.; . using only the interactions of solid parts against each other
2. adj. Of or pertaining to a machine or to machinery or tools; made or formed by a machine or with tools
3. adj. Done as if by a machine; uninfluenced by will or emotion; proceeding automatically, or by habit, without special intention or reflection
4. adj. Made and operated by interaction of forces without a directing intelligence.
5. adj. Obtained by trial, by measurements, etc.; approximate; empirical. See the 2d Note under Geometric.
6. n. obsolete A mechanic.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. using (or as if using) mechanisms or tools or devices
2. adj. relating to or concerned with machinery or tools
3. adj. relating to or governed by or in accordance with mechanics