machine
n. countablen. a piece of equipment with moving parts that uses power to do a specific job. You use them to make work easier or faster, like a washing machine or a car.
n. an apparatus using mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task. Often used metaphorically to describe a highly efficient person or a complex political organisation.
The coffee machine is broken again.
The factory replaced several manual assembly lines with a single machine that could package goods twice as fast.
The political machine worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that every local precinct captain was aligned with the party's national platform before the convention began.
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.
Commonly used as the second element in compound nouns such as 'washing machine', 'vending machine', or 'answering machine'.
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grinding machine
A machine tool in which a rotating grinding wheel is moved against the workpiece (or vice versa) in order to cut the latter to a desired shape.
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milling machine
A machine tool in which a rotating cutter is moved against the workpiece (or vice versa) in order to cut the latter to a desired shape.
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poop machine
An animal whose defecation inconveniences humans.