Machine

ma·chine   (mə-shēn')    n.   A device consisting of fixed and moving parts that modifies mechanical energy and transmits it in a more useful form. 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. A device used to produce a stage effect, especially a mechanical means of lowering an actor onto the stage. A literary device used to produce an effect, especially the introduction of a supernatural being to resolve a plot. A system or device for doing work, as an automobile or a jackhammer, together with its power source and auxiliary equipment. A system or device, such as a computer, that performs or assists in the performance of a human task: The machine is down. An intricate natural system or organism, such as the human body. A person who acts in a rigid, mechanical, or unconscious manner. An organized group of people whose members are or appear to be under the control of one or more leaders: a political machine. A device used to produce a stage effect, especially a mechanical means of lowering an actor onto the stage. A literary device used to produce an effect, especially the introduction of a supernatural being to resolve a plot. An answering machine: Leave a message on my machine if I'm not home. adj.  Of, relating to, or felt to resemble a machine: machine repairs; machine politics. v.   ma·chined, ma·chin·ing, ma·chines v.   tr. To cut, shape, or finish by machine. v.   intr. To be cut, shaped, or finished by machine: This metal machines easily. [French, from Old French, from Latin māchina, from Greek mākhanā, dialectal variant of mēkhanē; see magh- in Indo-European roots.] ma·chin'a·ble adj., ma·chine'less adj.

Machine

Ma*chine"\, n. [F., fr. L. machina machine, engine, device, trick, Gr. ?, from ? means, expedient. Cf. Mechanic.]

1. 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.

Note: The term machine is most commonly applied to such pieces of mechanism as are used in the industrial arts, for mechanically shaping, dressing, and combining materials for various purposes, as in the manufacture of cloth, etc. Where the effect is chemical, or other than mechanical, the contrivance is usually denominated an apparatus, not a machine; as, a bleaching apparatus. Many large, powerful, or specially important pieces of mechanism are called engines; as, a steam engine, fire engine, graduating engine, etc. Although there is no well-settled distinction between the terms engine and machine among practical men, there is a tendency to restrict the application of the former to contrivances in which the operating part is not distinct from the motor.

2. Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle. --Dryden. --Southey. --Thackeray.

3. A person who acts mechanically or at will of another.

4. A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine.

The whole machine of government ought not to bear upon the people with a weight so heavy and oppressive. --Landor.

5. A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends. [Political Cant]

6. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit. --Addison.

Elementary machine, a name sometimes given to one of the simple mechanical powers. See under Mechanical.

Infernal machine. See under Infernal.

Machine gun.See under Gun.

Machine screw, a screw or bolt adapted for screwing into metal, in distinction from one which is designed especially to be screwed into wood.

Machine shop, a workshop where machines are made, or where metal is shaped by cutting, filing, turning, etc.

Machine tool, a machine for cutting or shaping wood, metal, etc., by means of a tool; especially, a machine, as a lathe, planer, drilling machine, etc., designed for a more or less general use in a machine shop, in distinction from a machine for producing a special article as in manufacturing.

Machine twist, silken thread especially adapted for use in a sewing machine.

Machine work, work done by a machine, in contradistinction to that done by hand labor.

machine 

machine   (mə-shēn')  Pronunciation Key  A device that applies force, changes the direction of a force, or changes the strength of a force, in order to perform a task, generally involving work done on a load. Machines are often designed to yield a high mechanical advantage to reduce the effort needed to do that work. ◇ A simple machine is a wheel, a lever, or an inclined plane. All other machines can be built using combinations of these simple machines; for example, a drill uses a combination of gears (wheels) to drive helical inclined planes (the drill-bit) to split a material and carve a hole in it.

machine
Common term for "computer", usually when considered at the hardware level. The Turing Machine, an early example of this usage, was however neither hardware nor software, but only an idea.
[Earlier use?]
(1995-02-15)