'Machinery' definitions:

Definition of 'machinery'

(from WordNet)
noun
Machines or machine systems collectively
noun
A system of means and activities whereby a social institution functions; "the complex machinery of negotiation"; "the machinery of command labored and brought forth an order"

Definition of 'Machinery'

From: GCIDE
  • Machinery \Ma*chin"er*y\ (m[.a]*sh[=e]n"[~e]r*[y^]), n. [From Machine: cf. F. machinerie.]
  • 1. Machines, in general, or collectively. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. The working parts of a machine, engine, or instrument; as, the machinery of a watch. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. The supernatural means by which the action of a poetic or fictitious work is carried on and brought to a catastrophe; in an extended sense, the contrivances by which the crises and conclusion of a fictitious narrative, in prose or verse, are effected. [1913 Webster]
  • The machinery, madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that part which the deities, angels, or demons, are made to act in a poem. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. The means and appliances by which anything is kept in action or a desired result is obtained; a complex system of parts adapted to a purpose. [1913 Webster]
  • An indispensable part of the machinery of state. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
  • The delicate inflexional machinery of the Aryan languages. --I. Taylor (The Alphabet). [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'machinery'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Machinery'