- (n.) A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social 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.) A person who acts mechanically or at will of another.
- (n.) Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle.
- (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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
| APA | Webster's. (2011). machine. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/machine/definitions/2029527 |
| Chicago | Webster's. 2011. "machine" http://smartdefine.org/machine/definitions/2029527 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | Webster's 2011, machine, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/machine/definitions/2029527>. |
| MLA | Webster's. "machine" 27 May 2011. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/machine/definitions/2029527> |