machinery








noun, plural ma·chin·er·ies.

  1. an assemblage of machines or mechanical apparatuses: the machinery of a factory.
  2. the parts of a machine, collectively: the machinery of a watch.
  3. a group of people or a system by which action is maintained or by which some result is obtained: the machinery of government.
  4. a group of contrivances for producing stage effects.
  5. the group or aggregate of literary machines, especially those of supernatural agency (epic machinery) in an epic poem.

noun plural -eries

  1. machines, machine parts, or machine systems collectively
  2. a particular machine system or set of machines
  3. a system similar to a machinethe machinery of government
  4. literary devices used for effect in epic poetry

n.1680s; from machine (n.) + -ery. Originally theatrical, “devices for creating stage effects” (which also was a sense of Greek mekhane); meaning “machines collectively” is attested from 1731. Middle English had machinament “a contrivance” (early 15c.).

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