Definition of machine
- n. - In general, any combination of bodies so connected that
their relative motions are constrained, and by means of which force and
motion may be transmitted and modified, as a screw and its nut, or a
lever arranged to turn about a fulcrum or a pulley about its pivot,
etc.; especially, a construction, more or less complex, consisting of a
combination of moving parts, or simple mechanical elements, as wheels,
levers, cams, etc., with their supports and connecting framework,
calculated to constitute a prime mover, or to receive force and motion
from a prime mover or from another machine, and transmit, modify, and
apply them to the production of some desired mechanical effect or work,
as weaving by a loom, or the excitation of electricity by an electrical
machine.
- n. - Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which
the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle.
- n. - A person who acts mechanically or at will of another.
- n. - A combination of persons acting together for a common
purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine.
- n. - A political organization arranged and controlled by one or
more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends.
- n. - Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being
introduced to perform some exploit.
- v. t. - To subject to the action of machinery; to effect by aid
of machinery; to print with a printing machine.