machine
Pluralmachines
Verbmachines, machining, machined
Pluralmachines
Formsmachines, machining, machined
- 1A device that directs and controls energy, often as movement or electricity, to produce a particular effect.
Every machine in the plant runs on electricity from the new solar array.
A simple lever is one of the oldest machines humans ever built.
UsageThe job goes in front: washing machine, coffee machine, answering machine.
Similardevice, apparatus, appliance, mechanism, contraption
- 2A computer.
The build failed on my machine but passed on the test server.
My old machine takes forever to start up, so I'm finally buying a new laptop.
UsageCommon phrases include my machine and a Linux machine. This use is common in technical talk.
Similarcomputer, box, system, workstation
Note
The working programmer's word for a computer, usually a particular one: my machine, the test machine. Speakers often put the operating system in front, as in a Linux machine. Game developers speak of pushing the limits of the machine, meaning the hardware's capacity rather than any single box.
- 3A person or organization that acts with relentless efficiency, single-minded focus, or a lack of emotion.
On the court she was a machine, sinking shot after shot without a flicker of emotion.
By its third year, the startup had become a machine, shipping new features every week.
UsageOften after a hyphenated activity: a money-making machine. Said of a person, it is mostly praise: she's a machine.
Similarrobot, automaton, powerhouse, dynamo
Note
Said of a person, it usually admires their tireless skill. Said of an institution, it tends to accuse. A government that has become a money-making machine is being charged with heartlessness, not praised for efficiency.
- 4The group that controls a political or similar organization; people acting together for a common purpose, along with the methods and resources they use.
No reform passed the council without the county machine's approval.
The union's machine controlled hiring at every dock in the harbor.
UsageCommon in the party machine and the machine of government.
Similarapparatus, organization, establishment, clique
Note
The broader, older use: any body of people working together, along with the means it works through. Walter Savage Landor writes in 1828 that the whole machine of government ought never to bear on the people with an oppressive weight. Machine of government is the classic frame. The American party machine, run by bosses who trade jobs and favors for votes, is the best-known case.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The cited passage appeared in 1828. gutenberg.org
- Landor wrote the paraphrased passage; its speaker is the fictional Rousseau in his dialogue, rather than Landor speaking personally. gutenberg.org
- American political machines use jobs and other rewards to secure votes under bosses. en.wikipedia.org
- 5To make, shape, or finish something using machinery, especially by cutting metal with machine tools.
Technicians machine each rough casting until the surfaces are perfectly smooth.
The valve seats were machined to a tolerance of two thousandths of an inch.
UsageThe object is the material or the part: machine steel, a valve seat machined to a fine tolerance.
Note
The machinist's verb, and the meaning most workshops intend: material is cut away from a workpiece, not built up, by turning, milling and similar methods. The -ing form names the whole trade, as in Helmi A. Youssef's Machining of Stainless Steels and Super Alloys.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Machining removes material from a workpiece rather than building it up. en.wikipedia.org
- Turning and milling are cutting methods used in machining. catalogimages.wiley.com
- Helmi A. Youssef wrote Machining of Stainless Steels and Super Alloys. onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Less common meanings
- 6A mechanically operated vehicle, such as an automobile or an airplane.
He cranked the machine's engine and set off down the dusty road.
As the aviator turned his machine to reconnoitre in the new direction, he was surprised to see the hostile aeroplane between him and his objective.
1914, F. Britten Austin, “The Air-Scout”Note
A word from the early days of motoring and flight, used for a car, an airplane or a motorcycle alike. In F. Britten Austin's "The Air-Scout" (1914), an aviator turns "his machine." Used of a car today, it sounds deliberately old-fashioned.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- F. Britten Austin's "The Air-Scout" was published in 1914. archive.org
- The story's narrator describes an aviator turning "his machine," meaning his aeroplane. dev.gutenberg.org
- The Missing Chums was first published in 1928 under the name Franklin W. Dixon. gutenberg.org
- The motorcycle passage is absent from the original 1928 text. It belongs to the rewritten version published in 1962. en.wikipedia.org
- 7A telephone answering machine or, by extension, a voice mail service.
She let the machine pick up so she could screen her calls.
His machine was full, so I couldn't leave a message.
UsageCommon phrases include leave a message on the machine and the machine picked up. You can also say on my machine.
Similarvoicemail
Note
Telephone shorthand, clipped from answering machine and stretched to cover voice mail, where no answering machine is needed at home. The setting of a phone call keeps it from being confused with a computer or any other appliance.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The telephone sense abbreviates answering machine and extends to voicemail. en.wiktionary.org
- 8A wheeled changing hut drawn into shallow water so that sea bathers could undress and enter the water privately; short for bathing machine.
One Machine only was provided for Bathers, the Limitted smoothness of the sands not extending widely enough to admit another.
1823, Frances Burney, Journals and LettersNote
Seaside vocabulary from the bathing era, when the short form was enough because everyone knew the full one. Frances Burney notes in 1823 that only one Machine was provided for bathers, because the smooth sands did not extend far enough for another. In modern prose, use the full bathing machine. Alone, the clipped word would be read as an appliance.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Machine was historically used as a shortened form of bathing machine. en.wiktionary.org
- Frances Burney wrote in 1823 that only one machine was provided for bathers because the area of smooth sand could not accommodate another. en.wiktionary.org
- 9A euphemistic, indirect term for the penis.
Note
A bawdy euphemism of the eighteenth century, at home in John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749). There the body is described in coy mechanical terms. The sense is now obsolete. A reader who meets it in a period text should recognize the innuendo, but a modern writer cannot expect it to be understood.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The eighteenth-century euphemism occurs in the novel, where the penis is described in mechanical terms. gutenberg.org
- John Cleland wrote Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. commons.wikimedia.org
- 1749 is the first-edition title-page date, accepted under the requested dating convention; actual publication began in 1748. en.wikisource.org
- 10A crane in the ancient Greek theater used to lift or lower an actor, especially one playing a god, above the stage.
- 11In a poem, supernatural intervention, or a superhuman being brought into the story to accomplish some feat.
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Origin
Doric Greek mākhănā́, a cognate of Attic Greek mēkhănḗ (which gave us "mechanical"), passed into Latin as māchina ("a machine, engine, contrivance, device, or trick"). English borrowed it from Middle French machine, and it replaced the native Old English word searu.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Doric Greek mākhănā́ is cognate with Attic Greek mēkhănḗ. en.wiktionary.org
- English mechanical ultimately derives from Attic Greek mēkhănḗ. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin borrowed Doric Greek mākhănā́ as māchina. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin māchina meant a machine, engine, contrivance, device, or trick. en.wiktionary.org
- English borrowed machine from Middle French machine. en.wiktionary.org
- Machine displaced the native Old English word searu. en.wiktionary.org