machine
pronunciation
How to pronounce machine in British English:
UK [məˈʃiːn]
How to pronounce machine in American English:
US [məˈʃiːn]
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- Noun:
- any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks
- an intricate organization that accomplishes its goals efficiently
- an efficient person
- 4-wheeled motor vehicle; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine
- a group that controls the activities of a political party
- a device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point
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- Verb:
- turn, shape, mold, or otherwise finish by machinery
- make by machinery
Word Origin
- machine
- machine: [16] The ultimate source of both machine and mechanic [14] was makhos, a Greek word meaning ‘contrivance, means’, and related distantly to English may ‘be able’ and might. From it was derived mēkhané, whose Doric dialect form mākhaná passed into Latin as māchina ‘engine, contrivance’. English acquired the word via Old French machine. Meanwhile mēkhané had spawned an adjectival derivative mēkhanikós, which was in due course to find its way into English through Latin mēchanicus.=> mechanic
- machine (n.)
- 1540s, "structure of any kind," from Middle French machine "device, contrivance," from Latin machina "machine, engine, military machine; device, trick; instrument" (source also of Spanish maquina, Italian macchina), from Greek makhana, Doric variant of mekhane "device, means," related to mekhos "means, expedient, contrivance," from PIE *maghana- "that which enables," from root *magh- (1) "to be able, have power" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic mogo "be able," Old English mæg "I can;" see may (v.)). Main modern sense of "device made of moving parts for applying mechanical power" (1670s) probably grew out of mid-17c. senses of "apparatus, appliance" and "military siege-tower." In late 19c. slang the word was used for both "penis" and "vagina," one of the few so honored. Political sense is U.S. slang, first recorded 1876. Machine age is attested by 1851: The idea of remodelling society at public meetings is one of the least reasonable which ever entered the mind of an agitator: and the notion that the relations of the sexes can be re-arranged and finally disposed of by preamble and resolution, is one of the latest, as it should have been the last, vagary of a machine age. ["The Literary World," Nov. 1, 1851] Machine for living (in) "house" translates Le Corbusier's machine à habiter (1923).
- machine (v.)
- mid-15c., "decide, resolve," from Old French and Latin usages (see machine (n.)). Related: Machined; machining. Meaning "to make or form on a machine" is from 1878. Related: Machined; machining.
Example
- 1. A hyperpolarized congress is an uncertainty-generating machine .
- 2. That will allow the machine to pick up the movements of a player .
- 3. Many consumers still want or need a laptop or a desktop machine .
- 4. It 's a mind-numbingly complex machine .
- 5. Wall street 's cash printing machine may be finally out of ink .