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.
Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden
horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle.
A person who acts mechanically or at the
will of another.
A combination of persons acting together
for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the
social machine.
A political organization arranged and
controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan
ends.
Supernatural agency in a poem, or a
superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.
