English - Etymology

Borrowing from Middle French machine, from Latin machina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), from Ancient Greek μαχανά (makhaná), Doric spelling of μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “a machine, engine, contrivance, device”).

English - Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /məˈʃiːn/

English - Noun

machine (plural machines)

1. A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect.
2. (archaic) A vehicle operated mechanically; an automobile.
3. (telephony, abbreviation) An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail.

   I called you earlier, but all I got was the machine.

4. (computing) A computer.

   Game developers assume they're pushing the limits of the machine.

5. (figuratively) A person or organisation that seemingly acts like a machine, being particularly efficient, single-minded, or unemotional.

   Bruce Campbell was a "demon-killing machine" because he made quick work of killing demons.

   The government has become a money-making machine.

6. Especially, the group that controls a political or similar organization; a combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use.
   • Landor

     The whole machine of government ought not to bear upon the people with a weight so heavy and oppressive.

7. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

8. (euphemistic, obsolete) Penis.
   • 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Part 3

     He now resumes his attempts in more form: first, he put one of the pillows under me, to give the blank of his aim a more favourable elevation, and another under my head, in ease of it; then spreading my thighs, and placing himself standing between them, made them rest upon his hips; applying then the point of his machine to the slit, into which he sought entrance.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:machine

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

English - Verb

machine (third-person singular simple present machines, present participle machining, simple past and past participle machined)

1. to make by machinery.
2. to shape or finish by machinery.

Derived terms

• machinist

Translations

English - External Links

• machine in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• machine in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

English - Anagrams

• Eichman

Dutch - Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɑˈʃinə/
• Hyphenation: ma‧chi‧ne

Dutch - Noun

machine f (plural machines, diminutive machientje n or machinetje n)

1. machine (mechanical or electrical device)

Derived terms

• naaimachine
• schrijfmachine

French - Etymology

From Latin machina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), from Ancient Greek μαχανά (makhaná).

French - Noun

machine f (plural machines)

1. machine, device (clarification of this French definition is being sought)
2. (slang) very proficient person

   Ce type, c'est une vraie machine !

Related terms

• machinal
• machiner
• machinisme
• machiniste
• mécanique

French - Anagrams

• chemina

French - External Links

• “machine” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French - Etymology

Borrowing from Latin machina.

Middle French - Noun

machine f (plural machines)

1. machine; device

Middle French - References

• “machine” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881)

قافية