▪ I. machine, n.
(məˈʃiːn)
Also 7–8 machin.
[ad. F. machine (= Sp. maquina, Pg. maquina, machina, It. macchina), ad. L. māchina, ad. Gr. µηχανή, f. µῆχος contrivance, cogn. w. Teut. *magan to be able (see may v.).
The Fr. word has passed into all the mod. Teut. langs.: G. maschine, Du. machine, Da. maskine, Sw. maskin.
In 17–18th c. the word was often stressed on the first syll.]
1. a. A structure of any kind, material or immaterial; a fabric, an erection. Now rare exc. in machine-for-living(-in) [tr. F. machine à habiter (‘Le Corbusier’ Vers une Architecture (1923) p. ix)], a house, and in imitative phrases.
| 1549 Compl. Scot. Ep. to Queen 3 The maist illustir potent prince of the maist fertil & pacebil realme, vndir the machine of the supreme olimp. 1599 A. Hume Hymnes ii. 38 Be his wisdome..so wondrouslie of nocht, This machin round, this vniuers, this vther world he wrocht. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. Pref. 2 Disposing the whole Machine of the World. 1674 Hickman Quinquart. Hist. (ed. 2) 225 They that asserted Universal redemption by the death of Christ destroyed the whole Machine of the Calvinian predestination. 1682 N. O. tr. Boileau's Lutrin i. 239 Behind this Machine [a pulpit], cover'd as with a skreen, The Sneaking Chanter scarce could then be seen. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. 23 They put fire next to a Machine which seemed to be a blew Tree when it was on fire. 1697 Dryden æneid ii. 25 With inward Arms the dire Machine [sc. the wooden horse] they load. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. v. lxii. 286 Her imperial majesty is drawn..in a large machine, which contains her bed, a table, and other conveniences...This machine is set on a sledge, and drawn by twenty-four post horses. 1784 J. Barry in Lect. Paint. v. (1848) 196 Had the whole of this great machine of the Fontana di Trevi been committed to any one of those sculptors. 1791 C. Smith Celestina (ed. 2) I. 129 Her new laylock bonnet..for the safety of which she was so solicitous that she would have taken the great machine in which it was contained into the coach, had it not been opposed by the coachman. 1829 R. Hall Wks. (1832) VI. 457 The mind casts its eye over the whole machine of society. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 279 To each mortal peradventure earth becomes a new machine. 1931 A. Huxley Music at Night 217 In Le Corbusier's phrase, a house is a ‘machine for living in’. 1934 ― Beyond Mexique Bay 132 Le Corbusier himself could hardly have done the trick better: King's is the perfect machine-for-praying-in. 1960 R. W. Marks Dymaxion World of B. Fuller 22/1 The house was actually the world's first tangible embodiment of what one French architect hopefully designated as a ‘Machine-for-Living’. 1966 ‘J. Melville’ Nell Alone vii. 75 The whole house was..a machine for Mrs Richier to live in. |
b. spec. A vehicle of any kind (usually wheeled). In the 18th and part of the 19th centuries commonly applied to a stage-coach or mail-coach.
Obs. exc. Sc. Also short for
bathing-machine.
| 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. 54 They make use of an Engine which they call Palanquin... This Machine hangs by a long Pole [etc.]. 1704 Swift Mech. Operat. Spirit Misc. (1711) 275 Tho' there is not any other Nation in the World so plentifully provided with Carriages for that Journey..yet there are abundance of us who will not be satisfy'd with any other Machine besides this of Mahomet. 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4545/1 His Serenity, accompanied by..the Boy who drew the Balls for the Election [of Doge] sitting in the same Machine, was carried out of the Church. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Britain III. 106 A Machine going out to, and coming in from, London three Times a Week in the Summer. 1759 Adam Smith Mor. Sent. (1781) 267 The poor man's son..sees his superiors carried about in machines. 1772 Burke Corr. (1844) I. 372 Your very kind letter of the 15{supt}{suph},..I received by the machine. 1788 E. Sheridan Jrnl. (1960) iv. 114, I went down to the bathing House where I found a great Number of Ladies and Gentlemen waiting to take their turn in the Machines. 1791 A. Grant Lett. fr. Mountains (1813) II. xxxvii. 184, I came in a little open machine we keep for these journies. 1822 Acc. Establ. Gen. P.-O. 8 in Parl. Pap. XVIII. 175 To loss by death of two horses before the machine commenced running. 1825 E. Weeton Jrnl. 14 June (1969) II. 384 Southport..is sadly exposing..and the modest complain much, gentlemen's and ladies' machines standing promiscuously in the water! 1832 Massachusetts Stat. c. 75 §4 Every cart, wagon, or other machine, drawn by two or four oxen. 1859 All Year Round No. 19. 446, I got into the wrong machine [sc. a bathing-machine] first. 1870 G. Meredith Lett. (1970) I. 426 We have a flat sandy shore, and you see half a dozen fat men at a time scampering out of the machines. 1893 H. Joyce Hist. Post Office xii. 215 In that year [1784], and for some little time afterwards, coaches which carried the mails were called diligences or machines, and the coachmen were called machine-drivers. 1894 Black Highland Cousins I. 37, I would bring a machine and drive you up to the Drill-Hall. |
† c. Applied to a ship or other vessel.
Obs.| 1637 Heywood Royal Ship 27 Shee [Pallas] hath (no doubt) raptured our Undertaker This Machine to devise first, and then make her. 1702 S. Parker tr. Cicero's De Finibus v. 320 In vain upon the Canvas plays A wanton Gale. The Machin stays Becalm'd with Harmony. 1717 W. Sutherland (title) Britain's Glory or Ship-building Unveil'd, being a General Director for Building and Compleating the said Machines. 1782 Crevecoeur Lett. 220 [Slaves] carried in a strange machine over an ever agitated element, which they had never seen before. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. II. 155 We..embarked upon the canal in a stage boat bound for Chester... The shape of the machine resembles the common representations of Noah's ark. |
d. (See
quot.) (
Cf. sense 3.)
| 1883 S. Plimsoll in 19th Cent. July 147 The box..is called by many names, as ‘van’, ‘machine’, ‘tank’, ‘trunk’, &c. Ibid. 162 The ‘kit’ haddocks are put loose into what are called machines. These machines are long boxes lined with lead..divided internally into four equal spaces. |
e. A motor car.
U.S.| 1901 McClure's Mag. XVIII. i. 21/2 His assistant crouching at his feet out of range of the swift-flying currents of air produced by the mad flight of the machine. 1912 Collier's 21 Sept. 37/2 Leslie, Lanagan, and I hurried in the chief's machine to the Swanson home. 1915 Sat. Even. Post 3 Apr. 62/2 The reliability of the machine was so amazing that, in seven years of business, not a single breakdown had been reported. 1919 Ibid. 25 Jan. 45/3 As I neared my own house I slowed the machine. |
2. A military engine, siege-tower, or the like. Now
rare. Chiefly
Anc. Hist. (
= L.
machina).
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Machine, an instrument or engine of War. 1674 Ch. & Court of Rome 4 These are the goodly Machines..recommended to batter down the Protestant Cause. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. ix. 277 He [raised] enormous machines round about the city. 1839 Thirlwall Greece VI. xlix. 165 The besieged made many vigorous sallies for the purpose of setting fire to the machines. |
3. a. An apparatus, appliance, instrument.
| 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 92 In the curious Machin of speech, the Nose is added as a Recorder. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 27 The Microscope..has been but lately discover'd: for the Naturalists..were not aided by that Machine. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Racket is also a machine, which the savages of Canada bind to their feet, to enable them to walk more commodiously over the snow. 1941 G. Marx Groucho Lett. (1967) 48 They will wind up at Las Vegas playing the machines. 1962 Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 92 Tabulator (accounting machine), a machine which reads data from a medium..and produces lists, tables or totals. 1968 Times 11 Oct. 8/2 Thorpe has analysed the fish-calls of 40 sandwich terns by means of a sound spectrograph, a machine which analyses sounds, in terms of their pitch and loudness and produces a graphical representation of the sound. 1970 Washington Post 30 Sept. B.14/1 The stoves, the refrigerators and other machines. 1973 Black Panther 14 Apr. 6/1 The Visiting Room containing tables and chairs and machines for snacks and soft drinks. |
† b. In immaterial sense: A device, machination.
Obs.| 1595–6 Queen Elizabeth Let. to Jas. VI (Camden Soc.) 113 In wordz..of such waight, as, in honest dimars, hit may mar the fa{cced}on of diuelische machines, and crase the hartz of treason-mynding men. Ibid. 173 And how I mynde to kipe my owne dores from my ennemis malice; and so do wische that our solide amitie may overthawrt thes develische machines. |
4. a. In a narrower sense: An apparatus for applying mechanical power, consisting of a number of interrelated parts, each having a definite function.
In recent use the word tends to be applied
esp. to an apparatus so devised that the result of its operation is not dependent on the strength or manipulative skill of the workman; thus the term
printing-machine does not in ordinary language include the hand-press, but is reserved for those apparatus of later invention in which manual labour is superseded by the action of the mechanism.
| 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 5 This kind of Machin is generally used..for raising up Water. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 250 For raising this obelisk out of the ground,..Fontana contrived forty-one machines. 1822 Robison Syst. Mech. Philos. II. 48 It is certain that the account given in the ‘Century of Inventions’ could instruct no person who was not sufficiently acquainted with the property of steam to be able to invent the machine himself. 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. iii. (ed. 2) 96 Examining the component parts of the Machine,—its springs, wheels, levers, cords, pulleys, &c. 1881 Sir W. Thomson in Nature No. 619. 434 Windmills as hitherto made are very costly machines. 1888 Pall Mall G. 12 Apr. 12/1 An Automatic Gas Machine... The machine is charged with one of the first products of petroleum, or gasolene. |
| fig. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vi. ii, The great state wheels in all the political machines of Europe. 1801 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) I. 342 More experience than we have yet had of the operation of the court (of the manner in which the machine works). 1809–10 Coleridge Friend xv. (1887) 64 To expose the folly and the legerdemain of those who have thus abused the blessed machine of language. 1876 L. Stephen Eng. Th. in 18th Cent. II. ix. iii. 19 The Church was excellent as a national refrigerating machine. |
b. Used
spec. for the particular kind of machine with which the speaker is chiefly concerned;
e.g. short for
sewing-machine,
printing-machine, (
Austral. and
N.Z.)
shearing-machine. Also, in recent use, a bicycle or tricycle; a flying-machine, an aircraft; a mechanical printing press; a fire-engine (
U.S.); a typewriter; a calculating machine or computer.
| 1659 T. St. Serf tr. Cyrano de Bergerac's Govt. World in Moon sig. D3v, I caused a Machine to be made of Iron..and being well seated in the seat, I cast my Magnetique Bowl into the Air. 1679 R. Hooke in Phil. Coll. R. Soc. I. 15 A Machin newly Invented for Flying in the Air. 1751 R. Morris Narr. Life J. Daniel xii. 170 He had brought his machine to absolute perfection, and..had been making an experiment for flying in it. 1809 Nicholson's Jrnl. Nat. Philos. Nov. 172 It may be of some amusement to some of your readers to see a machine rise in the air by mechanical means. Ibid. 173 The little machine is completed. 1825 T. C. Hansard Typographia 699 The machine being put in motion, the paper which is to be printed is laid upon a board, passed through, and receives the impression on one side. Ibid. 700 One machine was to perform the work of eight presses. Ibid. 712 My machine has had a trial of six months: its ordinary speed is..at an average of two thousand impressions, or one thousand perfected sheets per hour. 1832, etc. [see calculating machines s.v. calculating vbl. n.]. 1833 Penny Mag. Monthly Suppl. Nov.–Dec. 508/2 One thousand perfect copies..could only have been daily produced at one press by the labour of two men. The machine produces sixteen thousand copies. 1841 Penny Cycl. XIX. 20/1 A sheet of paper is..put into the machine by one attendant and taken out printed on both sides by the other attendant. c 1848 B. A. Baker Glance at N.Y. (c 1857) 9 I've made up my mind not to run wid der machine any more. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 259 Machine, the name for a fire-engine among the New York ‘b'hoys’. 1871 Porcupine 29 July 276/1 Tantalising the toll-bar keepers on a ‘machine’. 1883 Sturmy Tricyclist's Ann. (ed. 3) 126 A glance at the tricycle trade..with full description of upwards of 250 machines. Ibid. 190 A well-made machine, and the easiest..folded tricycle in the market. 1891 W. D. Howells in ‘Twain’ & Howells Mark Twain–Howell's Lett. (1960) II. 639 The machine with which this letter is written is a Hammond. 1892 A. Powell Southward's Pract. Printing (ed. 4) ii. 11 Presses..are of two kinds, (a) hand presses and (b) mechanical presses. The latter are, in England, usually called ‘machines’ or ‘printing machines’. Ibid. xlviii. 429 The one-side, single-cylinder machine, which is generally referred to when a cylinder machine, or, indeed, ‘a machine’, is mentioned among printers. 1899 Northern Times (Golspie, Sutherland) 22 June 1/1 (Advt.), Splendid cycles... Boys' machines at {pstlg}5 10s. 1900 F. M. Ford Let. Oct. (1965) 10 My dear Galsworthy, Excuse my writing by machine; Christine at this moment monopolizes the only pen there is in the house. 1909 Aeronautics Dec. 151 Any machine—'plane or dirigible. 1915 Southward's Mod. Printing (ed. 3) II. i. 1 In the printing office the hand press is spoken of as the ‘press’ and the machine press as the ‘machine’... The press can be worked by hand power only; the machine may be driven by steam, gas, or other motive power. 1919 ‘Boyd Cable’ Old Contemptibles viii. 124 He paid more attention now to watching for enemy machines, and never failed..to rush his pilot to a machine and into the air if a German was reported in sight. 1927 H. Crane Let. 30 Mar. (1965) 295 I'm so unhappy without a machine. Hope I get my new one soon. 1940 Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Jan. 16/1 ‘Anyone,’ [Old Harry] declared, ‘could put up tallies with machines. With the tongs now—’..Harry produced half a dozen pairs of tongs and some sheep. 1944 ‘N. Shute’ Pastoral iv. 89 The machine before them opened out and trundled down the runway. 1946 V. S. Ganderton in H. Whetton Pract. Printing & Binding x. 114/2 Work on the principle of matching the new sheet to the machine, not the machine to the sheet. 1946 Ann. Computation Lab. Harvard Univ. I. Foreword, Harvard University's need for a machine such as the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator has long been a matter of discussion. 1954, etc. [see machine code, instruction, etc., in sense 10]. 1956 G. Bowen Wool Away! (ed. 2) i. 9 Relative quality of workmanship between blades and machines is a debatable point. 1957 D. D. McCracken Digital Computer Programming ii. 14 The first two digits [of the instruction]..tell the machine what to do. 1960 N. R. Scott Analog & Digital Computer Technol. v. 170 Instructions to the machine consist of combinations of these addresses with code numbers designating the arithmetical operations to be performed. 1970 E. A. D. Hutchings Survey of Printing Processes iv. 58 The inking unit is situated at the top of the machine, above the type-bed. 1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xix. 306 A company which changes computers normally changes to a machine which is considerably faster than the old one. 1972 Daily Tel. 5 Aug. 9/3 For us, it was back to our bicycles. We stacked our machines in the back of the car and set off for gently contoured Norfolk. |
c. Applied to the human and animal frame as a combination of several parts. (
Cf. sense 1.)
Now chiefly with metaphorical intention.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 124 Thine euermore most deere Lady, whilst this Machine is to him. 1687 Death's Vis. ix. 130 What Nobler Souls the Nobler Machins Wear. 1699 Garth Dispens. v. 54 And shall so useful a Machin as I Engage in civil Broyls, I know not why? 1712 Addison Spect. No. 387 ¶2 Cheerfulness is..the best Promoter of Health. Repinings..wear out the Machine insensibly. 1722 Quincy Lex. Phys.-Med. (ed. 2) 17 Until some Authors..have demonstrated the Laws of Circulation in an Animal Machine. 1804 Wordsw. ‘She was a Phantom of delight’ 22 And now I see with eye serene The very pulse of the machine. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 181 When a product of diseased action has been effected,..in consequence of which the machine becomes again sensible to the impressions of ordinary causes. 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 114 The human machine tires, and as a consequence not only is the speed of working reduced, but [etc.]. |
d. A combination of parts moving mechanically, as contrasted with a being having life, consciousness and will. Hence applied to a person who acts merely from habit or obedience to rule, without intelligence, or to one whose actions have the undeviating precision and uniformity of a ‘machine’.
| 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 59 If brutes be supposed to be bare engins and machins. 1779 A. Hamilton Wks. (1886) VII. 565 The nearer the soldiers approach to machines, perhaps the better. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 119 Man must be free; or to what purpose was he made a spirit of reason, and not a machine of instinct? 1820 Byron Mar. Fal. i. ii. 302 They are..mere machines, To serve the nobles' most patrician pleasure. 1830 Carlyle in Froude Life (1882) II. 90 Wherefore their system [Utilitarianism] is a machine and cannot grow or endure. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 18 I'll have old Hickes. He was a neat little machine of a butler. 1890 ‘L. Falconer’ Mlle. Ixe (1891) 108, I believe women think horses are machines, and made of cast-iron too. 1895 Outing (U.S.) Dec. 248/2 Too much preparation..makes a man a mere machine, set to go off at a particular day. |
e. slang. The penis; a condom (see also
quot. 1896).
| 1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman Pleasure I. 200 Coming out with that formidable machine of his, he lets the fury loose. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Machines,..See Cundum. c 1863 Philo cunnus Festival of Passions II. 12, I then seized his stiff machine in my grasp. 1896 Farmer & Henley Slang IV. 262/2 Machine,..1. The female pudendum... 2. The penis. |
f. N.Z. colloq. A totalizator.
| 1889 G. P. Williams in A. E. Woodhouse N.Z. Farm & Station Verse (1950) 26 What a lot [of money] you left behind in the ‘machine’. 1891 Williams & Reeves In Double Harness 8 When racing was developed by the aid of the ‘machine’. 1900 J. Scott Tales Colonial Turf 218 The bookmakers would not pay 30–1 as the machine is doing. |
5. Mech. Any instrument employed to transmit force, or to modify its application.
simple machine: one in which there is no combination of parts,
e.g. a lever, or any other of the so-called
mechanical powers.
compound machine: one whose efficiency depends on the combined action of two or more parts.
[An artificial extension of sense 4, the notion of complexity implied in that sense being treated as unessential.]
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn., Machine, or Engine, in Mechanicks, is whatsoever hath Force sufficient either to raise or stop the Motion of a Body... Simple Machines are commonly reckoned to be Six in Number, viz. the Ballance, Leaver, Pulley, Wheel, Wedge, and Screw... Compound Machines, or Engines, are innumerable. 1831 Lardner Hydrost. ii. 10 By this singular power of transmitting pressure, a fluid becomes, in the strictest sense of the term, a machine. 1839 G. Bird Nat. Philos. 60 By means of these simple machines it must not be supposed that we beget or increase force. 1866 Duke of Argyll Reign Law ii. (ed. 4) 90 A man's arm is a machine. |
6. Theatr. [
= L.
machina.] A contrivance for the production of stage-effects. Also in
pl. = stage-machinery.
Obs. exc. in occasional allusion to the ancient stage.
| 1658 Hist. Q. Christina 225 This play succeeded very well, especially for the admirable beauty and finenesse of the machins. 1681 Cotton Wond. Peak (ed. 4) 9 Like a Machine which, when some god appears, We see descend upon our Theaters. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 56 The Poet if he had thought on't, might have introduced her by a Machin. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iv. 46 Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes, And crystal domes, and angels in machines. 1720 De Foe Duncan Campbell (1895) 177 She..descended into that room full of company, as a miracle appearing in a machine from above. 1741 Betterton Eng. Stage i. 9 Adorned..with all the Machines and Decorations, the Skill of those Times could afford. a 1845 Hood Vauxhall vii, Time's ripe for the Ballet, Like bees they all rally Before the machine! 1873 Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 124 Forth steps the needy tailor on the stage, Deity-like from dusk machine of fog. |
b. [A Gallicism.] A painting of large size.
| 1932 R. Fry Characteristics French Art iii. 62 He was too poor in spirit ever to try, himself, to paint one of the big machines which made one an historical painter. 1965 Listener 28 Oct. 672/1 The small pictures and the machines appear to be the different sides of the same coin. |
7. Hence in literary use: A contrivance for the sake of effect; a supernatural agency or personage introduced into a poem; the interposition of one of these.
| 1678 Dryden Œdipus Epil. 10 Terror and pity this whole poem sway; The mightiest machines that can move a play. 1693 ― Juvenal Ded. (1697) 13 His [Milton's] Heavenly Machines are many, and his Human Persons are but two. 1700 ― Fables Pref., Wks. (Globe) 498 Virgil never made use of such machines, when he was moving you to commiserate the death of Dido. 1705 Addison Italy 425 The Apparition of Venus comes in very properly..for without such a Machine..I can't see how the Heroe could..leave Neoptolemus triumphant. 1712 ― Spect. No. 351 ¶5 The changing of the Trojan fleet into Water-Nymphs..is the most violent Machine of the whole æneid. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 130 ¶20, I come now to consider the machines; a sort of beings that have the outside and appearance of men, without being really such. 1715 Pope Iliad I. Pref. B 4 b, The Marvelous Fable includes whatever is supernatural, and especially the Machines of the Gods. 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Pope 14 Sept., The story of the opera..gives opportunities for a great variety of machines. 1727 Pope, etc. Art of Sinking 120 [Recipe] for the Machines; Take of deities, male and female, as many as you can use. 1756–82 J. Warton Ess. Pope (ed. 4) I. iv. 230 These machines are vastly superior to the allegorical personages of Boileau and Garth. 1765 H. Walpole Otranto (ed. 2) Pref., The actions, sentiments, conversations, of the heroes and heroines of ancient days were as unnatural as the machines employed to put them in motion. 1774 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry III. xxiii. 83 It has nothing, except the machine of the chime, in common with Fabyll's Ghoste. 1897 W. P. Ker Epic & Romance 36 The episodes of Circe, of the Sirens, and of Polyphemus, are machines. |
8. orig. U.S. The controlling organization of a political party. Hence applied, with disparaging emphasis, to organizations of more or less similar character in England. Also
transf.| 1876 H. V. Boynton in N. Amer. Rev. CXXIII. 327 In a word he encountered the combinations inside politics,—the machine. 1884 L'pool Mercury 18 Feb. 5/5 An election which gives to Lord Randolph Churchill the practical control of the Conservative electioneering machine. 1884 Tit-Bits 28 June 164/3 The Business Machine was furious. He said that [etc.]. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxvi. 498 The officials..in whose gift this patronage lies place it at the disposal of the leaders of the Machine. Now there are three Machines in New York; two Democratic, because the Democratic party..is divided into two factions.., and one Republican. 1890 Review of Rev. II. 602/1 His followers in Ireland, the men of the machine, the members whom he nominated to their constituencies,..set about making noisy demonstrations in his favour. 1892 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 29 Nov. 3/1 (heading) The Machine Drops Senator Wm. S. McNary. 1901 N. Amer. Rev. Feb. 255 The Nationalist Party..are working the machine with unflagging energy. 1941 Ann. Reg. 1940 281 Britain unaided could not hold out against the spectacular German machine. 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 18 Apr. 13 It dared to oppose the Nazi war machine. 1948 P. D. Whitting in M. Beloff Hist. xvi. 338/1 Hitler, backed by a finely organized propaganda machine, could rouse the German nation to frenzied hatred of one country after another. 1965 New Statesman 7 May 706/1 To some people who have observed the scope and method of operations at Transport House, the question is not simply one of finding new custodians to mind the party machine. It is whether that machine ought not to be taken apart and entirely reconstructed. 1972 Guardian 28 Oct. 13/4 The Labour machine had failed to pick up..the magnitude of the swing towards Cyril Smith. 1973 Black Panther 20 Oct. 17/3 The ‘Miracle Mets’..surprised everyone by..swamping the ‘Big Red’ Cincinnati machine in the National League playoffs. |
9. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple attributive, as (sense 3)
machine aesthetic,
machine art,
machine form,
machine sculpture; (sense 4)
machine-action,
machine-drill,
machine-electricity,
machine-horse,
machine house,
machine part,
machine-power,
machine-process,
machine-room,
machine-strap; (sense 4 b)
machine embroidery,
machine lace,
machine stitch; (sense 4 d)
machine-society; (sense 8)
machine candidate,
machine party,
machine-politician,
machine-politics,
machine power; also
machine-like adj .
| 1882 Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S. 593 The first of these conditions..is the strains of *machine action. |
| 1945 H. Read Coat of Many Colours lxvii. 320 (heading) *Machine aesthetic. 1967 Listener 8 June 745/3 The Bauhaus is one thing, and the machine aesthetic..is another. 1973 Times 8 Aug. 10/4 In Léger's writings of the Twenties, it is not so much speed as the mass-produced object and the ‘machine aesthetic’ which occupies his attention. He saw the mass-produced object as the surfacing of an anonymous natural beauty of man-made forms independent of the self-conscious architect-designer. |
| 1945 H. Read Coat of Many Colours lxvii. 323 What the critics of *machine art object to..is not the fact of standardization, but rather the failure to reproduce certain qualities which they regard as essential to art. 1959 ― Conc. Hist. Mod. Painting vi. 213 [The Bauhaus] established for the first time a course in basic design that could serve as a training for the machine art of an industrial civilization. |
| 1950 Economist 9 Dec. 1004/1 The two *machine candidates in New York City. |
| 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 292 The company has also determined to use *machine drills in the mine. |
| 1843 Mill Logic iii. ix. §2 (1856) I. 450 Common, or *machine electricity. |
| 1960 G. Lewis Handbk. Crafts 66 The word ‘machine’, perhaps, makes this sort of embroidery sound dull and mechanical, but in actual fact *machine embroidery is decorative, exciting and creative, and has the added advantage that it is relatively quick to do. 1973 ‘E. Ferrars’ Foot in Grave vi. 104 I'll write and I'll paint, and I'll take up machine embroidery. |
| 1909 W. R. Sorley Interpretation of Evolution 29 Instinct..impresses the *machine-form upon portions of the external world, as in the bird's nest or beaver's dam. 1955 P. Heron Changing Forms of Art 70 They are the crystallized thoughts of an inventor, but one who is aware of the beauty of the machine-forms which come to him out of the blue. |
| 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. i. viii, The depressed, unexpectant look of a *machine-horse. |
| 1808 J. Steele Let. 31 Aug. in Papers (1924) II. 562, I bought them [sc. steelyards]..last winter for the use of my *Machine house. |
| 1913 J. Vaizey College Girl xxvi. 360 ‘A neck arrangement’, composed of the cheapest of *machine lace. |
| 1698–1712 Shaftesbury Philos. Regimen (1900) 114 *Machine-like to be moved and wrought upon, wound up and governed exteriorly, as if there were nothing that ruled within or had the least control. 1880 L. Wallace Ben-Hur 117 The machine-like unity of the whole moving mass. 1932 E. Bowen To North xv. 151 Machine-like efficiency is not, she had been given to understand, compatible with high intelligence. |
| 1944 Horizon Feb. 97 What society wants is the *machine-part which does the job. 1972 Sci. Amer. June 122/3 A distributor of bearings and similar machine parts. |
| 1858 N.Y. Daily Tribune 1 Nov. 7/6 Both of these alleged swindlers are prominent members of the ‘*Masheen’ party of the First Ward. |
| 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. III. iv. lxxix. 44 Committees are often formed in cities to combat the *Machine politicians in the interests of municipal reform. |
| 1893 Times 26 Apr. 9/5 Irishmen exhibit a faculty for assimilating the baser elements in the *machine politics of America. |
| 1924 Army Q. Oct. 38 The replacement of muscle-power by *machine-power is the cardinal fact in every department of material life. 1937 B. H. L. Hart Europe in Arms xxiii. 312 As was inevitable, machine-power overcame an ill-equipped opponent. 1951 S. Spender World within World v. 284 The new phase of domination, and threat by machine-power politics. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 189/1 The first industrial revolution is largely the history of enlisting machine power in the performance of many thousands of tasks. |
| 1935 Burlington Mag. July 48/2 One familiar with *machine-processes. |
| 1970 New Scientist 12 Mar. 513 The ultimate comment on technology came from the American artist Tinguely who built *machine-sculptures that could be exhibited only once—because they destroy themselves. |
| 1757 E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) I. 8 When I am confined to such *machine society..I fancy I am got into Powell's commonwealth. |
| 1934 Webster, *Machine stitch. 1964 McCall's Sewing vii. 98/2 Use a fine machine-stitch..and a fine machine needle. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Machine-strap maker, a manufacturer of leather and other connecting bands. |
b. objective, as
machine-breaking,
machine-drawing,
machine-maker,
machine-minder,
machine-monger,
machine-operator,
machine-overseer,
machine-owner,
machine-tender.
| 1832 Miss Mitford Village Ser. v. 11 Several men had been arraigned together for *machine-breaking. |
| 1887 D. A. Low Machine Draw. Pref., *Machine drawing is simply the application of the principles of descriptive geometry to the representation of machines. |
| 1813 Examiner 26 Apr. 262/1 B. Roberts, Pudsey, Yorkshire, *machine⁓maker. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Machine-maker..a constructive builder, who designs or supplies machines..to order. |
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 213 From the hand-openers the flax is carried to the heckling machines. Young boys, called *machine-minders,..tend them. 1876 J. Gould Letterpress Printer (1893) 130 The machine-minder must examine every sheet for some time. |
| 1840 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 9 Every man is a *machine-monger when the question is of himself. |
| 1896 Indianopolis Typogr. Jrnl. 16 Nov. 407 The man is a *machine-operator on a city daily. |
| 1899 Daily News 23 May 10/6 Letterpress *machine overseer..seeks permanency. |
| 1817 Cobbett Wks. XXXII. 363 Violences against *machine owners. |
| 1890 Spectator 8 Feb., The Emperor..forgets the *machine-tenders altogether. |
c. instrumental, with sense ‘by or with a machine’,
esp. in contradistinction to what is done by hand, as
machine-driller,
machine-knitter,
machine-printer;
machine-darning,
machine-drilling,
machine-knitting,
machine-moulding,
machine-printing,
machine-production,
machine-riveting,
machine-stitching,
machine-switching;
machine-closed,
machine-coated,
machine-cut,
machine-divided,
machine-driven,
machine-finished,
machine-generated,
machine-ginned,
machine-glazed,
machine-knitted,
machine-made,
machine-planed,
machine-printed,
machine-processable,
machine-readable,
machine-ruled,
machine-set,
machine-sewed,
machine-stitched,
machine-tooled,
machine-welted,
machine-wrought adjs.;
machine-darn,
machine-knit,
machine-mould vbs.| 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xxvii. 55 *Machine-closed uppers. |
| 1963 R. R. A. Higham Handbk. Papermaking ix. 228 To the papermaker, the term *machine-coated signifies a paper which has been coated on the paper machine as an integral part of the papermaking process. To the printer, however, machine-coated means a class of paper. |
| 1897 Daily News 29 Mar. 8/7 A supply of large files..to be hand cut, *machine cut, or partly hand and partly machine cut. 1900 Ibid. 2 Nov. 9/1 Machine-cut tobacco is affected adversely by the heat engendered. |
| 1932 D. C. Minter Mod. Needlecraft 182/2 This type of tear may also be *machine-darned. Ibid. 177/2 *Machine-darning is suitable for table-linen. 1967 E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage i. 17 (caption) Motif on net with machine darning and cut work. |
| 1902 Marshall Metal Tools 7 A *machine-divided steel rule. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 11 Jan. 3/1 The wages of *machine-drillers on the surface are 10s. a day. |
| 1902 Westm. Gaz. 13 Oct. 7/3 Fine dust given off during the *machine-drilling operations. |
| 1901 Daily Chron. 29 May 3/7 A *machine-driven vehicle naturally needs restrictions that do not apply to horse-driven vehicles. |
| 1892 W. W. Greener Breech-Loader 52 The machine-made and *machine-finished gun may be distinguished: First, by [etc.]. 1960 Gloss. Paper, Stationery (B.S.I.) 17 Machine-finished (M.F.) paper, paper treated mechanically on a paper-machine to obtain a smoother and more uniform appearance on both sides than on the unfinished paper. 1973 S. Jennett Making of Bks. (ed. 5) xi. 182 Machine-finished Papers (or M.F.) have the normal finish of the paper-making machine. The surface is moderately smooth and shiny, but not glossy. |
| 1961 F. Kaufman Electronic Data Processing & Auditing vii. 117 The loss of a *machine-generated decision is surely no worse than the failure of careless or overburdened people to make such decisions. |
| 1883 Times 27 Aug. 9/6 Fine *machine-ginned Broach [cotton]. |
| 1914 *Machine-glazed [see M.G. s.v. M 5]. 1959 Gloss. Packaging Terms (B.S.I.) 66 Machine glazed (M.G.) paper or board, paper or board which has had one side made smooth and glossy by drying on a heated, polished metal cylinder, forming part of the drying section of the machine. The other side remains relatively rough. 1962 F. T. Day Introd. to Paper iv. 44 The M.G. high-speed single-cylinder paper making machine illustrated here is a standard type of equipment employed in the mill for making thin machine glazed papers. A popular name for the M.G. or cylinder machine is the ‘Yankee’. |
| 1927 T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk 83 Enormous lengths were *machine-knitted into hose and half-hose. Ibid. 79 The utilization of artificial silk yarn for hand-knitted and machine-knitted articles. Ibid. 83 If a *machine-knitter does not wind the yarns in his own mill, he can have them supplied in the form of bottle bobbins. |
| 1886 Family Friend Jan. 87/1 *Machine-knitting. 1927 T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk 86 In machine-knitting several courses are formed simultaneously. |
| 1858 Greener Gunnery 431 Enfield *machine-made arms. 1899 Daily News 27 Nov. 3/1 Above the level of what are known in America as ‘machine-made plays’. |
| 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 36/1 By 1915–6 cast-iron cylinders were cast from metal patterns and *machine-moulded. |
| 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. 217 *Machine-moulding,..embraces the moulding of wheels and ordinary work by the aid of special machines. |
| 1949 F. Bowers Princ. Bibliogr. Descr. x. 355 It seems necessary for the purposes of descriptive bibliography to draw a chronological line after which the methods of description for *machine-printed books will in general hold. 1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Apr. 312/1 Machine-set and machine-printed books. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 24 Sept. 8/1 An old man..described as a *machine-printer. |
| 1825 T. C. Hansard Typographia 714 *Machine printing will..be only applicable to works of extensive sale. 1892 A. Powell Southward's Pract. Printing (ed. 4) liii. 467 (heading) Some difficulties in machine printing. 1897 Chiswick Press 4 They have obtained..greater facilities for Machine Printing. 1972 P. Gaskell New Introd. Bibliogr. 260 Inks for machine printing differed little from those for the hand-press period. |
| 1967 Cox & Grose Organiz. Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer vii. 185 The B.N.B. *machine-processable records. 1971 J. B. Carroll et al. Word Frequency Bk. p. ix, Machine-processable data for lexicography. |
| 1898 J. A. Hobson John Ruskin ix. 217 The ‘driving’ tendency of modern *machine-production. 1931 L. Watt Future of Capitalism iv. 42 This ‘dilemma’ of technological unemployment (unemployment resulting from the development of machine-production) would..face any form of economic organisation. 1961 Times 30 Oct. (Computer Suppl.) p. ix/6 The three basic types of *machine-readable document. 1971 Computers & Humanities V. 301 To collect in machine-readable form a million-character corpus of modern vernacular literature. |
| 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. 217 *Machine-riveting, riveting performed by a single application of steady pressure at the same instant upon the tail and the head of a rivet. |
| 1878 Sala in Gentl. Mag. May 565 Much of his [G. Cruikshank's]..foreground work was..‘*machine-ruled’, instead of being free-handed. |
| 1908 Kipling Lett. of Travel (1920) 154 The brittle pulp-paper, the *machine-set type, are all as standardised as the railway cars of the Continent. 1967 Karch & Buber Offset Processes iii. 47 The layout man may choose to use proofs (also called proof-press prints). These proofs may be hand-set, machine-set or both. |
| 1900 Daily News 19 May 6/5 White silk *machine-stitched in a pattern. |
| 1899 Ibid. 28 Oct. 7/3 The coatbodice has *machine-stitching all round the outlines. |
| 1922 Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 834/1 Several types of *machine switching or automatic exchange systems have been devised, but in each of them the principle is to move the terminal of the calling line to that of the called line, which is fixed. 1950 J. Atkinson Herbert & Procter's Telephony II. i. 1/1 The idea of automatic or machine switching is by no means new. |
| 1962 Times 3 Mar. 11/3 Hook-making..is a high-speed *machine-tooled operation. |
| 1895 Daily News 16 Mar. 6/5 *Machine-welted work. |
| 1867 W. Felkin (title) A History of the *Machine-Wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures. |
10. Special combs.:
machine age, a name given to an era notable for its extensive use of mechanical devices; also
attrib.;
machine-bolt, a bolt with a thread, and a square or hexagonal head (Knight 1884);
machine-boy, a boy who attends to a machine;
machine code, a code (
code n.1 3 b or 3 c) prepared by or for the use of a machine;
spec. = machine language; so,
machine-coded adj.;
† machine-driver, the driver of a mail-coach;
machine finish, a moderately smooth finish that paper has after leaving the machine on which it was made (see
quots. 1937, 1960);
machine-head, a head for a double-bass or guitar, having worms and pinions, instead of pegs, for tightening the strings;
machine-holder (see
quot.);
machine-hours, hours during which a machine operates;
machine instruction Computers, an instruction (
instruction 4 c) in a machine language;
machine language Computers, a language (
language n. 1 d) that a particular computer can handle or act on directly, without further translation;
machine-man, one who works a machine (
esp. a printing-machine); also, a manager of the political machine (see 8), a ‘wire-puller’;
machine-oriented a. Computers, (of a computer language) devised in the light of the requirements of a particular kind of computer;
machine-pistol, a submachine gun;
machine proof = press-proof (
press n.1 16 b);
machine-room Printing, the room in which printing presses are operated;
machine-ruler, a machine for ruling lines on paper (Ogilvie, 1882);
machine-shop, a workshop for making or repairing machines or parts of machines; also
attrib.;
machine-time, time during which a computer is in use;
machine-tool, a machine for cutting or shaping wood, metals, etc., by means of a tool,
esp. one designed for use in a machine-shop;
machine translation, translation by a computer;
machine-twist U.S., a kind of silk twist, made especially for the sewing-machine (Knight
Suppl. 1884);
† machine-vessel, a fireship;
machine-whim (see
quot.);
machine word see
word n.;
machine-work,
† (
a) poetic ‘machinery’ (see sense 7) as represented in art; (
b) work done by a machine, as distinguished from that done by hand,
esp. with reference to printing..
| 1922 L. Mumford in H. E. Stearns Civilization in U.S. 11 These buildings..shall embody all that is good in the *Machine Age. 1934 H. Read Art & Industry i. i. 6 Has he [sc. the artist] any function in a machine-age society? 1967 Singha & Massey Indian Dances i. 36 Shaivism itself, under the impact of the new materialistic machine age had lost its religious fervour. |
| 1875 Southward Dict. Typogr., *Machine-boy, a boy engaged in the machine-room for laying-on and taking-off the sheets. |
| 1954 First Gloss. Programming Terminol. (Assoc. Computing Machinery) 4 Computer code (*Machine code), the code representing the operations built into the hardware of the computer. 1958 G. Greene Our Man in Havana i. iv. 45 Of course it's [a book-code] not so hard to break as a machine-code. 1971 Lowe & Hidden Computer Control in Process Industries v. 108 The machine language, or machine code,..is the repertoire of instructions for the basic operations that the central processor is designed to perform. |
| 1964 F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers ix. 144 A special routine called a ‘compiler’..produced an efficient *machine-coded program from the pseudo-code. |
| 1893 *Machine-driver [see 1 b]. |
| 1907 Cross & Bevan Text-bk. Paper-Making (ed. 3) x. 270 The mill or *machine finish is one which can be varied within wide limits. 1937 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper 170/1 Machine finish is the surface of the paper (1) as it leaves the last drying cylinder of the paper machine; (2) as it leaves the calenders immediately following the paper-machine. 1960 G. A. Glaister Gloss. Bk. 245/1 Machine-finish, paper made smooth, but not glossy, by receiving the normal finish of a Fourdrinier paper-making machine which completes its process by passing the paper over heated drums and through steel calendering rolls. These smooth the surface to the required degree. |
| 1844 G. Dodd Textile Manuf. vii. 213 He lets them [lace making machines] out at so much a day to middlemen called ‘*machine-holders’. |
| 1921 Eggleston & Robinson Business Costs 377 Direct labor and overhead... *Machine Hours 30. 1966 A. Battersby Math. in Managem. vii. 173 For the sake of simplicity, we may choose to use a measure such as ‘idle machine-hours’, on the grounds that a reduction in idleness will automatically bring down operating costs. |
| 1956 *Machine instruction [see language n. 1 d]. 1970 Machine instruction [see microprogrammer]. |
| 1949, etc. *Machine language [see language n. 1 d]. 1967 A. Hassitt Computer Programming ii. 41 There are a series of programs..which accept Fortran statements as data and produce machine language statements as output. Ibid., Although there are many different machine languages, many concepts are common to all of these languages. Some of the common ideas are binary arithmetic, index registers, memory addresses, [etc.]. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 192/1 The user prepared his program in a..computer language.. which the computer itself translated into its own basic machine language. |
| 1876 J. Gould Letterpress Printer (1893) 125 My remarks must be taken as those of a workman,..not as those of a *machine-man proper. 1883 Nation 21 June 520/3 The Republican Machine men are in possession of the regular party organization. 1890 Daily News 17 Feb. 3/3 For the last ten years I have been employed as machine man at the London and Tilbury Railway Works. 1897 Literature 13 Nov. 124/1 The ‘machine-men’ of the printing-houses of Edinburgh. 1901 Daily Chron. 10 Sept. 9/7 Pork and Beef Butcher.—Young man wants Situation as machineman. |
| 1967 D. Wilson in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. iii. 47 These programs are often referred to as problem-oriented languages, as opposed to the lower-level assembly or auto⁓coder languages which are more commonly used at present and are *machine-oriented. 1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xiv. 227 When problem-oriented programming languages..are used instead of simple machine-oriented languages, programming time is often reduced drastically. |
| 1940 Illustr. London News CXCVI. 786 (caption) Much has been heard of the *machine-pistols used by Nazi parachutists. 1962 Spectator 1 June 710/1 A Police State that tries to stop runaway schoolboys with machine-pistol fire. 1973 M. Woodhouse Blue Bone xiv. 153 A man with red hair and a machine pistol. |
| 1951 S. Jennett Making of Bks. vi. 88 The *machine proof..is pulled immediately before the forme goes on the press, or while it is actually on the press. 1961 T. Landau Encycl. Librarianship (ed. 2) 233/1 Machine revise, a proof printed when the forme is on the printing machine... Also called machine proof. |
| 1833 Penny Mag. Monthly Suppl. Nov.–Dec. 510/1 We will conduct our readers to Mr. Clowes's printing establishment, where there are more printing machines at work than at any other office in the world... Upon entering the *machine-room the stranger will naturally feel distracted by the din of so many wheels and cylinders in action. 1904 Brit. Printer Feb. 6/2 One of the strong points of the establishment—its machine-room accommodation—is examined. 1946 V. S. Ganderton in H. Whetton Pract. Printing & Binding x. 128 (caption) A fine example of a modern letterpress machine room. 1972 P. Gaskell New Introd. Bibliogr. 294 The machine-room overseer, an important man who ran the hand-press department as well as the machine-room. |
| 1827 Aurora (Philadelphia) 25 July 1/3 A *Machine Shop, from 60 to 70 feet long and 20 feet wide, two stories high. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 70 'Tis a curious chapter in modern history, the growth of the machine-shop. 1898 Engineering Mag. XVI. 38 A pile of machine-shop scrap containing 149 different things. 1968 New Scientist 12 Sept. 548 In my environment the majority of user time, not *machine time but user time, is spent in writing and running short programs. 1973 Computers & Humanities Mar. 198 The operation that consumes most machine time is the verification of Rule II, where we test that each sentence is contained in the union of at most three others. |
| 1861 W. Fairbairn Address to Brit. Assoc. 64 It is to the exactitude and accuracy of our *machine tools that our machinery of the present time owes its smoothness of motion and certainty of action. |
| 1949 W. Weaver in Locke & Booth Machine Transl. of Lang. (1955) 20 Mr. Max Zeldner, in a letter to the Herald Tribune on June 13, 1949 [published June 26], stating that the most you could expect of a *machine translation of fifty-five Hebrew words which form the 23d Psalm would start out Lord my shepherd no I will lack [etc.]. 1956 Nature 7 Jan. 1/1 Dr. Booth is optimistic that even the problems of machine-translation of literary work may prove less complex than they at present appear. 1960 E. Delavenay Introd. Machine Transl. 123 Machine translations today are still very imperfect. 1968 J. Lyons Introd. Theoret. Ling. iv. 159 The automatic analysis of written texts for the purpose of machine-translation. |
| 1694 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 342, 2 *machine vessells, wherein were lodged some 100 chests of powder to tear up all before it. 1811 Self Instructor 587 Vessels of war are..a ketch, a machine-vessel. |
| 1860 Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. (Cornwall Terms), *Machine-whim, a rotary steam-engine employed for winding. |
| 1711 Shaftesbury Charact. (1737) III. 384 The separate ornaments, independent both of figures and perspective; such as the *machine-work or divinitys in the sky. 1861 B. Hemyng in H. Mayhew London Labour (1862) Extra vol. 222/1 She then supported herself and her child by doing machine-work for a manufacturer. 1867 A. D. Whitney Summer in L. Goldthwaite's Life i. 10 No machine-work, but all real dainty finger-craft. |
▪ II. machine, v. (
məˈʃiːn)
Also 5–6
machyne.
[In early use a. F. machiner, ad. L. māchinārī: see machinate v. In later use f. machine n.] † 1. a. trans. To contrive, plot; also, to resolve
that.
b. intr. To plot, devise schemes (
against a person).
Obs.| c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 523 Sho..machynd in hir mynde for thy Þat it was best for hir to fly. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 64/6 The traytouris that had his dede machynit had ordanyt [etc.]. 1484 Caxton Curial 12 Somme shal machyne by somme moyen to deceyue the. 1530 Palsgr. 616/1 He hath not onely machyned agaynst me to make me lese my good, but also he hath machyned my dethe. 1679 Gavan in Speeches Jesuits 7 As I never in my life did machine, or contrive either the deposition or death of the King. |
2. a. trans. To form, make, or operate upon (
e.g. to cut, engrave, make, and
esp. to print, to sew) by means of a machine. Also with
in.
| 1878 Sala in Gentl. Mag. May 565 Some of the..plates..seem to be..machined. 1881 Greener Gun 246 The work is fitted into slots machined under the body of breech-action. 1886 Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. xxv, Making shirts, machining men's coats [etc.]. 1892 Times 31 Dec. 12/4 A book put in type in America, and only ‘machined’ by them. 1894 J. E. Davis Elem. Mod. Dressmaking 47 Tacking is not strong enough to hold sleeves well to the arm-hole for machining-in. 1896 Living Topics Cycl. (N.Y.) II. 260, 5 [rifled guns] were well advanced, and the parts for the remainder were nearly all forged and some of them machined. 1901 Census Schedule, Instructions, Sewing machinists should name the article they machine—as Boot Machinist. |
b. absol. To manufacture things by machinery.
| 1916 H. G. Wells Mr. Britling i. i. 16 They had standardized and machined wholesale, while the British were still making the things one by one. |
3. To place (a tree) on the transplanting machine.
| 1827 H. Steuart Planter's G. (1828) 247 It is a material consideration so to machine the Tree, as that its lee-side branches,..should, if possible, be uppermost on the pole. |
4. fig. a. To manage, work (a project, etc.) like a machine.
b. To furnish (a tale) with the machinery of a plot.
c. To render mechanical; to treat as if machinery.
| 1881 H. Labouchere in Daily News 22 Mar. 6/3 The paper was machined by your father. 1889 Academy 1 June 374/2 It is not, as a story, very cunningly machined. 1916 F. M. Ford Let. Sept. (1965) 72 The French Press..continues to blaze and coruscate about my gifts... Of course these salvos are a little machined by the French Govt. 1916 H. G. Wells Mr. Britling i. ii. 67 The reality of life is adventure, not performance. What can be ruled about can be machined. 1919 J. L. Garvin Econ. Found. Peace 183 As they drilled under arms or machined their Socialism. 1959 Listener 19 Nov. 868/2 ‘The new poets,’ Apollinaire wrote in 1917, ‘will one day machine poetry (machiner la poésie) as the modern age has machined the world.’ |
† 5. intr. To appear, as a god, from a ‘machine’; to serve the function of a poetic ‘machine’.
Obs. Hence
maˈchined ppl. a.| 1891 R. Buchanan Coming Terror 149 Highly finished, perfectly machined. 1891 Wheeling 25 Feb. 399 All sorts of lamps, bells, spanners, and machined parts. 1893 Daily News 13 June 5/6 The mechanically machined amendments not evoking any interest. |
Add:
6. intr. To undergo machining; to be suited to shaping, etc., by machine.
| 1939 Carpenter & Robertson Metals I. x. 734 Forgings of the same steel are expected to machine under the same conditions. 1988 Pract. Woodworking Mar. 32/3 Some woods do machine better than others, and the direction of working in relation to the grain also effects [sic.] the quality of the surface. |