ma•chine
Pronunciation: (mu-shēn'), [key] — n., v., -chined, -chin•ing.
—n. - 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.
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- a device that transmits or modifies force or motion.
- Also calledsimple machine.any of six or more elementary mechanisms, as the lever, wheel and axle, pulley, screw, wedge, and inclined plane.
- Also calledcomplex machine.a combination of simple machines.
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- an automobile or airplane.
- a typewriter.
- a bicycle or motorcycle.
- 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.
- any of various contrivances, esp. those formerly used in theater, for producing stage effects
- some agency, personage, incident or other feature introduced for effect into a literary composition.
—v.t. - to make, prepare, or finish with a machine or with machine tools.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.