2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Machinery  \Ma*chin"er*y\,  n.  [From  {Machine}:  cf  F. 
  machinerie.] 
  1.  Machines,  in  general,  or  collectively. 
 
  2.  The  working  parts  of  a  machine,  engine,  or  instrument;  as 
  the  machinery  of  a  watch. 
 
  3.  The  supernatural  means  by  which  the  action  of  a  poetic  or 
  fictitious  work  is  carried  on  and  brought  to  a 
  catastrophe;  in  an  extended  sense  the  contrivances  by 
  which  the  crises  and  conclusion  of  a  fictitious  narrative, 
  in  prose  or  verse,  are  effected. 
 
  The  machinery,  madam,  is  a  term  invented  by  the 
  critics,  to  signify  that  part  which  the  deities, 
  angels,  or  demons,  are  made  to  act  in  a  poem. 
  --Pope. 
 
  4.  The  means  and  appliances  by  which  anything  is  kept  in 
  action  or  a  desired  result  is  obtained;  a  complex  system 
  of  parts  adapted  to  a  purpose. 
 
  An  indispensable  part  of  the  machinery  of  state. 
  --Macaulay. 
 
  The  delicate  inflexional  machinery  of  the  Aryan 
  languages.  --I.  Taylor 
  (The 
  Alphabet). 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  machinery 
  n  1:  machines  or  machine  systems  collectively 
  2:  a  system  of  means  and  activities  whereby  a  social 
  institution  functions;  "the  complex  machinery  of 
  negotiation";  "the  machinery  of  command  labored  and 
  brought  forth  an  order" 

browse words by letter
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
or search   thesauri dictionary search words