machine

noun machines

1. A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect. 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.
2. dated A vehicle operated mechanically, such as an automobile or an airplane. As he stood directly beneath a brilliant arc light, waiting for a limousine that was approaching to pass him, he heard his name called in a sweet feminine voice. Looking up, he met the smiling eyes of Olga de Coude as she leaned forward upon the back seat of the machine. He bowed very low in respons
3. abbreviation An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail. I called you earlier, but all I got was the machine.
4. 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.
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. The whole machine of government, civil and religious, ought never to bear upon the people with a weight so oppressive
7. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit. 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[…]
8. US The system of special interest groups that supports a political party, especially in urban areas. 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.
9. euphemistic, obsolete Penis. 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
10. 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.
11. obsolete A bathing machine. One Machine only was provided for Bathers, the Limitted smoothness of the sands not extending widely enough to admit another.

Similar: machine, engine

verb machines · machining · 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. 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.