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machine

[muh-sheen]

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Machine Definition Dictionary.com Find Definitions For Any Word.Get Your Free Dictionary.com Toolbar.

noun

an apparatus consisting of interrelated parts with separate functions, used in the performance of some kind of work: a sewing machine.

a mechanical apparatus or contrivance; mechanism.

Mechanics.

a device that transmits or modifies force or motion.

Also called simple machine. any of six or more elementary mechanisms, as the lever, wheel and axle, pulley, screw, wedge, and inclined plane.

Also called complex machine. a combination of simple machines.

Older Use.

an automobile or airplane.

a typewriter.

a bicycle or motorcycle.

EXPAND

a vending machine: a cigarette machine.

any complex agency or operating system: the machine of government.

an organized group of persons that conducts or controls the activities of a political party or organization: He heads the Democratic machine in our city.

a person or thing that acts in a mechanical or automatic manner: Routine work had turned her into a machine.

10.

any of various contrivances, especially those formerly used in theater, for producing stage effects

11.

some agency, personage, incident or other feature introduced for effect into a literary composition.

COLLAPSE

verb (used with object)

12.

to make, prepare, or finish with a machine or with machine tools.

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Machine is one of our favorite verbs.

So is absquatulate. Does it mean:

to flee; abscond:

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

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Origin:
1540–50; < French < Latin māchina < Doric Greek māchanā́ pulley, akin to mâchos contrivance; compare mechanic

Related forms

ma·chine·less, adjective

an·ti·ma·chine, adjective

un·ma·chined, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To machine

Example Sentences

The venerable slot machine is undergoing a generational shift.

The idea becomes a machine that makes the art," and raising new possibilities of what writing can be.

It seems more likely that they pressed the wrong button, or that the machine failed to register their votes properly.

EXPAND

The venerable slot machine is undergoing a generational shift.

The idea becomes a machine that makes the art," and raising new possibilities of what writing can be.

It seems more likely that they pressed the wrong button, or that the machine failed to register their votes properly.

OK, so there's no such thing as a gamma ray machine that zaps scientists and turns them into giant green monsters.

One common take on this machine is a wheel or water mill that uses changes in weight to continually rotate.

For larger lawns, you may prefer to rent a dethatching machine.

It's fairly easy for a machine to pick pieces of wood and cardboard out of a mountain of paper.

Machine tool makers are part of the nation's industrial bedrock.

I'll usually find it blocking the drain pump of my front load machine.

The machine was a large investment, so it takes several years for the machine to pay for itself.

Researchers have built one of the world's smallest controllable robots-a machine tinier than the period that ends this sentence.

Quality-control coffee tasters take note: a machine may make you obsolatte.

And yet you get into the time machine and walk out a hundred years later and these places are crucial.

Your can get an environmentally friendly car and an environmentally friendly washing machine.

Running your iPod through a washing machine cycle might not be fatal, but it's certainly not a good idea.

They selected a machine that retains the original paper ballot.

When the new machine arrives, all you'll need to do is install your software and transfer your files.

One such machine has already been awarded a patent for something it quietly invented on its own.

As scientists work to link machine and mind, bionic limbs are gaining many of the capabilities of human ones.

There can be only one top-dog collider in physics, one ring-shaped machine to rule them all.

When the door is opened, the noise spills out along with the smell of fibers mixed with machine oil.

Then a giant machine sucks up the nuts and shoots them into the totes.

I'll tell you what the true perpetual motion machine is.

Visions of future technology don't involve being chained to a desktop machine.

At the end of the day, it's machine vs machines vs machines.

Sew the pinned edges as close to the edge as possible using a sewing machine.

But this x-ray machine has been augmented with x-ray diffraction technology that increases the machine's accuracy.

Descartes compared the brain to a hydraulic machine.

Road-trippers today don't expect much more from a rest stop than a stale vending machine and, if they're lucky, a clean bathroom.

Carol's machine can calculate polynomials with results of up to three digits.

It also marries science to the economic machine in a way that may not be entirely desirable.

The soldiers wave their machine guns and scream at the rangers to get down.

The new machine allows physicians to view tissue in detail and gauge its health simultaneously.

The machine at the top is the air pump for aeration.

The typical office copy machine is a modern-day wonder, but it can also be a source of considerable frustration.

Higher ed is too much of a money machine these days and not about doing the right thing.

One hundred years ago today, a machine carrying a person made a brief and wobbly flight.

Some flit from table to table, machine to machine and game to game.

The arts advocacy machine is running in high gear these days.

The heart-thumping, eye-blinking miracle that is the human body machine is one thing.

Stone-dressers will not be pleased to hear of a newly-contrived machine for dressing stone by hand.

Chatbots are also extraordinarily tenacious: such a machine has nothing better to do and it never gets bored.

Adding music in this context may cross the thin line between a killing machine and a dancing machine.

If the machine is left on forever, you can travel forward forever, but you can't go back before the machine was built.

Inventors of a virtual music machine try to overcome objections by giving it musicality.

But using an elliptical machine gives forces that are roughly equal to the subject's weight-making them comparable to walking.

The man is often too hurried and wishes to place the clothes immediately in the washing machine.

Craft your own stylish window coverings?no sewing machine required.

Like a parking-meter vending machine that will marry you and your buddies for jokes.

The newest device aiming for efficiency in the retail distribution of dry goods is a merchandise vending machine.

Go grocery shopping, take the dog for a walk, and let the answering machine handle your calls.

Save water by making sure to adjust the settings on your machine to the proper load size.

In what has become almost routine, the heart-lung machine.

The machine is throbbing under you with its cylinders beating a drummer's tattoo, and the air tears past you.

The freaking stubborn machine again makes the x-axis correspond to age groups, and the colored bands correspond to year.

They exist only as supercomputer simulations of molecule-sized machine parts produced by a team of researchers at the.

Barraged by machine gun fire from ground and air, he is hit in the chest.

Any pedal-powered commuting machine worth its salt has to fulfill a few basic criteria.

Bring power bars so you avoid the candy machine when you're hungry.

Cyclocross teamsters aren't the only guys in need of a versatile machine.

Teaching a machine to speak has been a dream for decades.

He jumped from the plane with a machine gun in his hands and a tuxedo in his backpack.

From the lettering you can still read on a few of them he believes they were old machine shop tool bins.

The team behind the machine says the experiment shows that self- reproduction is not unique to.

Colorful scans have lulled us into an oversimplified conception of the brain as a modular machine.

If you think the brain is a machine, there's no reason a machine can't be made to do anything the brain can".

They'll work better than any cleaning product or machine.

Just a few quantum objects could form the basis for a self-contained cooling machine.

The advantage to this machine is that it draws excess air out of the bags while it seals so you can retain a longer storage time.

All she had was a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete.

Bulk business mailings are inserted by machine in a controlled, supervised environment.

The iron balls the machine used would have made a fearsome din.

It takes the same amount of energy to run a full or a half load– so wait another day and fill up that machine.

He'd heard the story break as soon as it happened and left a message on our home answering machine.

He knew he must first put his clothes into the washing machine.

Washing machine wastewater carries tiny pieces of plastic to the oceans, where they wind up in sea life.

There are no machine guns, rocket launchers, or other heavy firepower here.

Christensen pointed out that in the early days of the personal computer, the entire machine was proprietary.

The machine reportedly has extraordinary capabilities for finding buried objects.

The question of machine intelligence is a tricky one.

Slowly the gantry motors roll the great machine forward.

Of course, if you don't have a desktop machine in the house, this suggestion is worth about what you paid for it.

The churning magma was something akin to a giant agitating washing machine.

While the demonstration gets off to a smooth start, the machine soon malfunctions.

Think about it, tenured professors actually think they are important to the machine of higher education.

And then he went back and manned a50-caliber machine gun, which he had not been trained.

Now, the world turns a searching glance upon this machine which does so much and fails so treacherously.

He and his two grandsons climb aboard a machine that resembles an automated car wash on wheels-a blueberry harvester.

Washing machine waste water carries tiny pieces of plastic to the oceans, where.

Find a leg-press machine that doesn't use free weights.

Instead, however, the machine rose again and continued on its way.

The sport will not be without some element of danger, but with a good machine this danger need not be excessive.

Now computer programmers are harnessing software versions of these same processes to achieve machine intelligence.

Many people know that it limits the amount of work a machine can deliver.

Tomorrow, they have the machine vid-scan you in your sleep.

Much has been said and written lately about the use of the flying machine as a destructive weapon.

Any pedal-powered commuting machine worth its salt has to fulfil a few basic criteria.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

machine (məˈʃiːn)

—n
1.	an assembly of interconnected components arranged to transmit or modify force in order to perform useful work
2.	Also called: simple machine a device for altering the magnitude or direction of a force, esp a lever, screw, wedge, or pulley
3.	a mechanically operated device or means of transport, such as a car, aircraft, etc
4.	any mechanical or electrical device that automatically performs tasks or assists in performing tasks
5.	a. (modifier) denoting a firearm that is fully automatic as distinguished from semiautomatic
	b. (in combination): machine pistol; machine gun
6.	any intricate structure or agency: the war machine
7.	a mechanically efficient, rigid, or obedient person
8.	an organized body of people that controls activities, policies, etc
9.	(esp in the classical theatre) a device such as a pulley to provide spectacular entrances and exits for supernatural characters
10.	an event, etc, introduced into a literary work for special effect

—vb
11.	(tr) to shape, cut, or remove (excess material) from (a workpiece) using a machine tool
12.	to use a machine to carry out a process on (something)

[C16: via French from Latin māchina machine, engine, from Doric Greek makhana pulley; related to makhos device, contrivance]

ma'chinable

—*adj*

ma'chineable

—*adj*

machina'bility

—n

ma'chineless

—*adj*

ma'chine-like

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

machine

1540s, "structure of any kind," from M.Fr. machine "device, contrivance," from L. machina "machine, engine, fabric, frame, device, trick" (cf. Sp. maquina, It. macchina), from Gk. makhana, Doric variant of mekhane "device, means," related to mekhos "means, expedient, contrivance," from PIE *maghana-

EXPAND

"that which enables," from base *magh- "to be able, have power" (cf. O.C.S. mogo "be able," O.E. mæg "I can;" see might). Main modern sense of "device made of moving parts for applying mechanical power" (1670s) probably grew out of mid-17c. senses of "apparatus, appliance" and "military siege-tower." In late 19c. slang the word was used for both "penis" and "vagina," one of the very few to be so honored. Political sense is U.S. slang, first recorded 1876. Machine Age (1922) was coined by Lewis Mumford. Machine-gun is first attested 1870; the verb is from 1915. Machine for living (in) "house" translates Le Corbusier's machine à habiter (1923).

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

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.

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

machine definition

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)

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"The press, the machine, the railroad, the telegraph are premises whose conclusion once a thousand years have passed no one has dared to draw as yet."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

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