machine

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French machine, from Latin māchina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), from Doric Greek μᾱχᾰνᾱ́ (mākhănā́), cognate with Attic Greek μηχᾰνή (mēkhănḗ, “a machine, engine, contrivance, device”), from which comes mechanical. Displaced native Old English searu.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈʃiːn/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈʃin/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn
• Hyphenation: ma‧chine

Noun

machine (plural machines)

2. A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect.
   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

3. (dated) A vehicle operated mechanically, such as an automobile or an airplane.
   • 1914 July, F. Britten Austin, “The Air-Scout”, in The Strand Magazine, volume XLVIII, London: George Newnes, Ltd., page 568:

     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.

   • 1928, Franklin W. Dixon, The Missing Chums, Grosset & Dunlap, page 1:

     "Joe, how soon will you be ready to roll?" Frank Hardy burst into the garage where his brother was working on a sleek, black-and-silver motorcycle. "Right now, if this machine kicks over," Joe replied, putting down a wrench.

4. (telephony, abbreviation) An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail.

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

5. (computing) A computer.

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

   He refuses to turn off his Linux machine.

6. (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.

7. 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.
   • 1828, Walter Savage Landor, “Rousseau and Malesherbes”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     The whole machine of government, civil and religious, ought never to bear upon the people with a weight so oppressive

8. (poetry) Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.
   • 1712 May 2 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “MONDAY, April 21, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 351; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     I am apt to think, that the changing of the Trojan fleet into water-nymphs, which is the most violent machine in the whole Æneid […]

     The spelling has been modernized.

9. (politics, chiefly US) The system of special interest groups that supports a political party, especially in urban areas.
   • 1902, The Friend:

     A machine politician cannot see why the straight ticket (as he and his clique of party bosses prepare it) should not be voted by every citizen belonging to that party.

   • 2006, Jerry F. Hough, Changing Party Coalitions: The Mystery of the Red State-blue State Alignment, Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 37:

     In essence, therefore, the right-fork strategy of the Democrats meant an alliance of the South with the political machines built on the non-Protestant immigrants in key Northeastern states.

   • 2013, Paul M. Green, Melvin G. Holli, The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition, fourth edition, SIU Press, →ISBN, page 126:

     He was thrust into a political maelstrom for which he was ill-prepared, and yet he was, most notably, the Chicago machine's political savior.

10. (euphemistic, obsolete) Penis.
    • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 107:

      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;

11. (historical) A contrivance in the Ancient Greek theatre for indicating a change of scene, by means of which a god might cross the stage or deliver a divine message; the deus ex machina.
12. (obsolete) A bathing machine.
    • 1823, Frances Burney, Journals and Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 512:

      One Machine only was provided for Bathers, the Limitted smoothness of the sands not extending widely enough to admit another.

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; (usually, more specifically) to shape subtractively by metal-cutting with machine-controlled toolpaths.
   • 2015, Helmi A. Youssef, Machining of Stainless Steels and Super Alloys, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 6:

     Engineering materials have been recently developed whose hardness and strength are considerably increased, such that the cutting speed and the MRR tend to fall when machining such materials using traditional methods like turning, milling, grinding, and so on.

Further reading

• “machine”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “machine”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “machine n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

Anagrams

• Eichman

Alternative forms

• machien (archaic or colloquial)

Etymology

Borrowed from French machine, from Middle French machine, from Latin māchina, from Doric Greek μᾱχανᾱ́ (mākhanā́).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɑˈʃinə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ma‧chi‧ne
• Rhymes: -inə

Noun

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

1. machine (mechanical or electrical device)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French machine, borrowed from Latin machina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), itself a borrowing from Doric Ancient Greek μᾱχᾰνᾱ́ (mākhănā́). Not to be confused with machin, which means "thing".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ʃin/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

machine f (plural machines)

1. machine, device (clarification of this definition is needed)
2. (slang) machine (a person who is very efficient)

   Ce type, c’est une vraie machine!

   What a guy, he's a real machine!

Further reading

• “machine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• chemina

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin machina.

Noun

machine f (plural machines)

1. machine; device

References

• Etymology and history of “machine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (machine, supplement)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ʃin/

Noun

machine f (plural machines)

1. machine