Thesaurus: machine

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Definitions

1. n. 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.
2. n. Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle.
3. n. A person who acts mechanically or at will of another.
4. n. A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine.
5. n. A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends.
6. n. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.
7. v. t. To subject to the action of machinery; to effect by aid of machinery; to print with a printing machine.
8. n. any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks
9. n. an efficient person
10. n. an intricate organization that accomplishes its goals efficiently
11. n. a device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point
12. n. a group that controls the activities of a political party