Thesaurus: machinery

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Definitions

1. n. Machines, in general, or collectively.
2. n. The working parts of a machine, engine, or instrument; as, the machinery of a watch.
3. n. The supernatural means by which the action of a poetic or fictitious work is carried on and brought to a catastrophe; in an extended sense, the contrivances by which the crises and conclusion of a fictitious narrative, in prose or verse, are effected.
4. n. The means and appliances by which anything is kept in action or a desired result is obtained; a complex system of parts adapted to a purpose.
5. n. machines or machine systems collectively
6. n. a system of means and activities whereby a social institution functions
7. 1. Machines, in general, or collectively. 2. The working parts of a machine, engine, or instrument; as, the machinery of a watch. 3. The supernatural means by which the action of a poetic or fictitious work is carried on and brought to a catastrophe; in an extended sense, the contrivances by which the crises and conclusion of a fictitious narrative, in prose or verse, are effected. The machinery, madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that part which the deities, angels, or demons, are made to act in a poem. Pope. 4. The means and appliances by which anything is kept in action or a desired result is obtained; a complex system of parts adapted to a purpose. An indispensable part of the machinery of state. Macaulay. The delicate inflexional machinery of the Aryan languages. I. Taylor (The Alphabet).
8. n:100 n. machines or machine systems collectively n. a system of means and activities whereby a social institution functions