Machine

machine
    n 1: any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or
         modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of
         human tasks
    2: an efficient person; "the boxer was a magnificent fighting
       machine"
    3: an intricate organization that accomplishes its goals
       efficiently; "the war machine"
    4: a device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying
       force at some other point [syn: {machine}, {simple machine}]
    5: a group that controls the activities of a political party;
       "he was endorsed by the Democratic machine" [syn: {machine},
       {political machine}]
    6: a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an
       internal combustion engine; "he needs a car to get to work"
       [syn: {car}, {auto}, {automobile}, {machine}, {motorcar}]
    v 1: turn, shape, mold, or otherwise finish by machinery
    2: make by machinery; "The Americans were machining while others
       still hand-made cars"
    

Machine \Ma*chine"\ (m[.a]*sh[=e]n"), n. [F., fr. L. machina
   machine, engine, device, trick, Gr. mhchanh`, from mh^chos
   means, expedient. Cf. {Mechanic}.]
   1. 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.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: The term machine is most commonly applied to such
         pieces of mechanism as are used in the industrial arts,
         for mechanically shaping, dressing, and combining
         materials for various purposes, as in the manufacture
         of cloth, etc. Where the effect is chemical, or other
         than mechanical, the contrivance is usually denominated
         an apparatus or device, not a machine; as, a bleaching
         apparatus. Many large, powerful, or specially important
         pieces of mechanism are called engines; as, a steam
         engine, fire engine, graduating engine, etc. Although
         there is no well-settled distinction between the terms
         engine and machine among practical men, there is a
         tendency to restrict the application of the former to
         contrivances in which the operating part is not
         distinct from the motor.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which
      the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle. --Dryden.
      --Southey. --Thackeray.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A person who acts mechanically or at the will of another.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A combination of persons acting together for a common
      purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social
      machine.
      [1913 Webster]

            The whole machine of government ought not to bear
            upon the people with a weight so heavy and
            oppressive.                           --Landor.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. A political organization arranged and controlled by one or
      more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends; the
      Tammany machine. [Political Cant]
      [1913 Webster]

   6. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being
      introduced to perform some exploit. --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Elementary machine}, a name sometimes given to one of the
      simple mechanical powers. See under {Mechanical}.

   {Infernal machine}. See under {Infernal}.

   {Machine gun}.See under {Gun.}

   {Machine screw}, a screw or bolt adapted for screwing into
      metal, in distinction from one which is designed
      especially to be screwed into wood.

   {Machine shop}, a workshop where machines are made, or where
      metal is shaped by cutting, filing, turning, etc.

   {Machine tool}, a machine for cutting or shaping wood, metal,
      etc., by means of a tool; especially, a machine, as a
      lathe, planer, drilling machine, etc., designed for a more
      or less general use in a machine shop, in distinction from
      a machine for producing a special article as in
      manufacturing.

   {Machine twist}, silken thread especially adapted for use in
      a sewing machine.

   {Machine work}, work done by a machine, in contradistinction
      to that done by hand labor.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Machine \Ma*chine"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Machined}
   (m[.a]*sh[=e]nd"); p. pr. & vb. n. {Machining}.]
   To subject to the action of machinery; to make, cut, shape,
   or modify with a machine; to effect by aid of machinery; to
   print with a printing machine.
   [1913 Webster]
    

machine

   Common term for "computer", usually when considered at the
   hardware level.  The {Turing Machine}, an early example of
   this usage, was however neither hardware nor software, but
   only an idea.

   [Earlier use?]

   (1995-02-15)
    

MACHINE. A contrivance which serves to apply or regulate moving power; or it 
is a tool more or less complicated, which is used to render useful natural 
instruments, Clef. des Lois Rom. h.t. 
     2. The act of congress gives to inventors the right to obtain a patent 
right for any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture, 
&c. Act of congress, July 4, 1836, s. 6. See Pet. C. C. 394; 3 Wash. C. C. 
443; 1 Wash. C. C. 108; 1 Wash. C. C. 168; 1 Mason, 447; Paine, 300; 4 Wash. 
C. C. 538; 1 How. U. S., 202; S. C. 17 Pet. 228; 2 McLean, 176. 
    

186 Moby Thesaurus words for "machine":
      American Party, Anti-Monopoly Party, Bull Moose Party, Bund,
      Communist Party, Composaline, Conservative Party,
      Constitutional Union Party, Democratic Party,
      Democratic-Republican Party, Diatype, Ditto, Elrod,
      Farmer-Labor Party, Federalist Party, Fotomatic, Fotosetter,
      Fototronic, Free Soil Party, Greenback Party, Intertype,
      Know-Nothing Party, Labour Party, Liberal Party,
      Liberal Republican Party, Liberty Party, Linotype, Monotype,
      Multigraph, National Republican Party, Photon, Populist Party,
      Progressive Party, Prohibition Party, Republican Party,
      Rochdale cooperative, Socialist Labor Party, Socialist Party,
      Socialist Workers Party, Tammany Hall, Teletype, Tory Party,
      Whig Party, Zip, addressing machine, alembic, alliance, anvil,
      apparatus, appliance, assemblage, association, auto, autocar,
      automaton, automobile, axis, band, bloc, boat, body, buggy, bus,
      cabal, caldron, camp, car, carve, chisel, city hall, clique,
      coalition, college, combination, combine, common market,
      confederacy, confederation, consumer cooperative, contraption,
      contrivance, convenience, convert, cooperative,
      cooperative society, corps, council, crate, credit union, crucible,
      cultivate, customs union, device, drive, duplicator,
      economic community, engine, enginery, extract, facility, faction,
      federation, fixture, free trade area, gadget, gang, gizmo, golem,
      group, grouping, grow, harvest, heap, hectograph, implement,
      instrument, jalopy, lathe, league, machinery, major party, make,
      manufacture, mechanical aid, mechanical device, mechanism,
      mechanize, melting pot, mill, mimeograph, mine, minor party, mob,
      mortar, motive power, motor, motor vehicle, motorcar, motorize,
      motorized vehicle, multiple party system, one-party system,
      opposition party, organization, partnership, party, party in power,
      phototypesetter, political machine, political party, power plant,
      power source, prime mover, process, pump, raise, rear, refine,
      retool, retort, ring, shape, sharpen, smelt, society,
      splinter party, stock ticker, system, teleprinter, teletypewriter,
      test tube, third party, ticker, tool, transducer, transformer, tub,
      two-party system, typewriter, union, utensil, utility, vehicle,
      voiture, wheels, wreck