Word Meanings - MACHINE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

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

Additional info about word: MACHINE

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. 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.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of MACHINE)

• Instrument
• Implement
• utensil
• tool
• document
• deed
• record
• medium
• muniment
• means
• channel
• machine
• agent

Possible antonyms: (opposite words of MACHINE)

• Obliviate
• silentiate
• suppress

Related words: (words related to MACHINE)

• MACHINER
  One who or operates a machine; a machinist.
• INSTRUMENTAL
  Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, esp. a musical instrument; as, instrumental music, distinguished from vocal music. "He defended the use of instrumental music in public worship." Macaulay. Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental
• SUPPRESSOR
  One who suppresses.
• UTENSIL
  That which is used; an instrument; an implement; especially, an instrument or vessel used in a kitchen, or in domestic and farming business. Wagons fraught with utensils of war. Milton. (more info) utensilis that may be used, fit for use, fr. uti,
• IMPLEMENT
  That which fulfills or supplies a want or use; esp., an instrument, toll, or utensil, as supplying a requisite to an end; as, the implements of trade, of husbandry, or of war. Genius must have talent as its complement and implement. Coleridge.
• INSTRUMENTALITY
  The quality or condition of being instrumental; that which is instrumental; anything used as a means; medium; agency. The instrumentality of faith in justification. Bp. Burnet. The discovery of gunpowder developed the science of attack and defense
• RECORDATION
  Remembrance; recollection; also, a record. Shak.
• INSTRUMENTATION
  1. The act of using or adapting as an instrument; a series or combination of instruments; means; agency. Otherwise we have no sufficient instrumentation for our human use or handling of so great a fact. H. Bushnell. The arrangement of a musical
• AGENT
  Actingpatient, or sustaining, action. "The body agent." Bacon. (more info) Gr. aka to drive, Skr. aj.
• DOCUMENT
  1. That which is taught or authoritatively set forth; precept; instruction; dogma. Learners should not be too much crowded with a heap or multitude of documents or ideas at one time. I. Watts. 2. An example for instruction or warning. They were
• RECORDER
  A kind of wind instrument resembling the flageolet. "Flutes and soft recorders." Milton. (more info) 1. One who records; specifically, a person whose official duty it is to make a record of writings or transactions. 2. The title of the
• SUPPRESSION
  Complete stoppage of a natural secretion or excretion; as, suppression of urine; -- used in contradiction to retention, which signifies that the secretion or excretion is retained without expulsion. Quain. (more info) 1. The act of suppressing,
• INSTRUMENTALLY
  1. By means of an instrument or agency; as means to an end. South. They will argue that the end being essentially beneficial, the means become instrumentally so. Burke. 2. With instruments of music; as, a song instrumentally accompanied. Mason.
• INSTRUMENT
  A writing, as the means of giving formal expression to some act; a writing expressive of some act, contract, process, as a deed, contract, writ, etc. Burrill. 4. One who, or that which, is made a means, or is caused to serve a purpose; a medium,
• RECORDERSHIP
  The office of a recorder.
• AGENTSHIP
  Agency. Beau. & Fl.
• RECORD
  L. recordari to remember; pref. re- re- + cor, cordis, the heart or 1. To recall to mind; to recollect; to remember; to meditate. "I it you record." Chaucer. 2. To repeat; to recite; to sing or play. They longed to see the day, to hear the lark
• RECORDING
  Keeping a record or a register; as, a recording secretary; -- applied to numerous instruments with an automatic appliance which makes a record of their action; as, a recording gauge or telegraph.
• SUPPRESSIVE
  Tending to suppress; subduing; concealing.
• RECORDANCE
  Remembrance.
• GRAMME MACHINE
  A kind of dynamo-electric machine; -- so named from its French inventor, M. Gramme. Knight.
• BURRING MACHINE
  A machine for cleansing wool of burs, seeds, and other substances.
• INTERAGENT
  An intermediate agent.
• INSUPPRESSIBLE
  That can not be suppressed or concealed; irrepressible. Young. -- In`sup*press"i*bly, adv.
• GLIDING MACHINE
  A construction consisting essentially of one or more aëroplanes for gliding in an inclined path from a height to the ground.
• INSUPPRESSIVE
  Insuppressible. "The insuppressive mettle of our spirits." Shak.
• PRECORDIAL
  Situated in front of the heart; of or pertaining to the præcordia.
• DIMPLEMENT
  The state of being dimpled, or marked with gentle depressions. The ground's most gentle dimplement. Mrs. Browning.
• CHANNEL
  A strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of lands; as, the British Channel. 4. That through which anything passes; means of passing, conveying, or transmitting; as, the news was conveyed to us by different channels. The veins are converging