Dictionary

machinery en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• mə-shē'nə-rē
• /məˈʃiːnəɹi/

Etymology

From machine + -ery. Compare French machinerie.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The machines constituting a production apparatus, in a plant etc., collectively.
   • All Mr. Yeats's grotesque machinery of sowlths and tevishes and sheogues leaves us without a shudder; his fantasies are stage-properties of the most unillusive kind. 2013, Norman A. Jeffares, W. B. Yeats:
   • One or two wondered then, as if suddenly recalling the outlander, how he would manage, or if he would perish, up there among his unholy modern machineries that puffed out frozen steam to store the deer meat and shot fowl for him, […] "And there were big boxes lugged up there, done up in iron clasps. Cruel-cold earth in those." […] "Like corpse boxes," someone else suggested, down in the half-light, snug fust of the village drinking shop. 2013, Tanith Lee, “Their Monstrous Minds”, in Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, editors, Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN:
   • The external aspect of the oficina was not unlike that of a north-country coal or iron mine—tall chimneys and machinery, corrugated iron buildings, offices and houses, the shanties of workmen, a high bank of refuse. 1890, William Howard Russell, “Iquique to the Pampas”, in A Visit to Chile and the Nitrate Fields of Tarapacá, Etc., London: J[ames] S[prent] Virtue & Co., […], page 171:
2. (countable, uncountable) The working parts of a machine as a group.
3. (countable, uncountable) The collective parts of something which allow it to function.
   • All of the machinery of the law was brought to bear on the investigation.
   • Since the three histone-fold domain amino acids are located at the surface of the α-helix 2 domain that is responsible for the formation of H3-H4 dimers and accessible in prenucleosomal complexes, it has been suggested that the specificity associated with these amino acid positions derives from interactions with different assembly or post-translational-modification machineries. 2015 October 28, “Comparing the Assembly and Handedness Dynamics of (H3.3-H4) 2 Tetrasomes to Canonical Tetrasomes”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:
4. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) The literary devices used in a work, notably for dramatic effect.

Forms

Deriveds

divine machinery · turbomachinery · heavy machinery · political machinery · nanomachinery · antimachinery · micromachinery

Relateds

machinist

Translations (65)

ro mașinărie (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · sv maskineri (working parts of a machine as a group) · de Rädchen (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · nl machinerie (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · ru обору́дование (machines constituting a production apparatus) · es maquinaria (machines constituting a production apparatus) · pt maquinário (machines constituting a production apparatus) · fr parc de machines (machines constituting a production apparatus) · nl machinepark (machines constituting a production apparatus) · tl kasigmuan (machines constituting a production apparatus) · hi मशीनरी (machines constituting a production apparatus) · fi koneet (machines constituting a production apparatus) · pl maszyneria (machines constituting a production apparatus) · fr machines (machines constituting a production apparatus) · de Maschinerie (working parts of a machine as a group) · km ម៉ាស៊ីន (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · tl makinarya (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · bg механизъм (working parts of a machine as a group) · da maskineri (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · fr pièces (working parts of a machine as a group) · ru механи́зм (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · ca maquinària (working parts of a machine as a group) · nrf machinn'nie (machines constituting a production apparatus) · cy peirianwaith (machines constituting a production apparatus) · cy peirianwaith (working parts of a machine as a group) · de Maschinerie (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · fi koneisto (working parts of a machine as a group) · hu gép (working parts of a machine as a group) · tl kasigmuan (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · bg съоръжения (machines constituting a production apparatus) · ru механи́зм (working parts of a machine as a group) · nl mechaniek (working parts of a machine as a group) · da maskineri (working parts of a machine as a group) · fi koneisto (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · nl machinery (machines constituting a production apparatus) · cs mašinérie (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · de Maschinerie (machines constituting a production apparatus) · es maquinaria (working parts of a machine as a group) · fr machinerie (working parts of a machine as a group) · eo maŝinaro (machines constituting a production apparatus) · tl makinarya (working parts of a machine as a group) · es maquinaria (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · ro mecanism (working parts of a machine as a group) · tl kasigmuan (working parts of a machine as a group) · hi मशीनरी (working parts of a machine as a group) · ca maquinària (machines constituting a production apparatus) · de maschinelle Ausrüstung (machines constituting a production apparatus) · bg машинария (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · da maskineri (machines constituting a production apparatus) · km គ្រឿងចក្រ (machines constituting a production apparatus) · ro mașinărie (machines constituting a production apparatus) · nl machinerie (working parts of a machine as a group) · hu gépezet (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · ms jentera (working parts of a machine as a group) · ru маши́ны (machines constituting a production apparatus) · tl makinarya (machines constituting a production apparatus) · hu szerkezet (working parts of a machine as a group) · de Räder (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · de Einzelteile (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · nv tʼáadoo leʼé naanídeíjeehígíí (machines constituting a production apparatus) · pt maquinaria (machines constituting a production apparatus) · sv maskineri (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · fr mécanique (collective parts of something which allow it to function) · sv maskineri (machines constituting a production apparatus) · es máquinas (machines constituting a production apparatus)