machined

1. 1
   adjective

   Made by a machine, or having the precise, uniform appearance of something a machine produced.

   The machined components fit together with almost no visible gaps.

   Its edges were so even and clean that the whole piece looked machined.

   Similarprecise, milled, engineered, uniform

   Oppositehandmade, handcrafted

   Note

   The adjective has two lives: a literal one in the workshop and a figurative one in criticism. Will Self, in the London Review of Books in 2011, writes of "the machined ripples of Ballard's prose." He means writing so even and controlled that it seems to have come off a tool rather than a hand. The word takes no degrees, so avoid "more machined" and "very machined."

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of machine.

   The engineer machined the prototype from a single aluminum billet.

   Each gear was machined to exact tolerances before final assembly.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here: the engineer machined the part, the part was machined, they have machined it. In workshop English the verb usually means more than "made by machinery." It means shaping metal by cutting material away along machine-controlled toolpaths. Before a noun, as in machined parts, the participle shades into the adjective for machine-made things.

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