machinery

From French machinerie (“machinery”), from machine (“machine”); see machine.

• enPR: mə-shē'nə-rē, IPA^(key): /məˈʃiːnəɹi/

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• Rhymes: -iːnəɹi

machinery (countable and uncountable, plural machineries)

1. The machines constituting a production apparatus, in a plant etc., collectively.
2. The working parts of a machine as a group.
3. The collective parts of something which allow it to function.

   All of the machinery of the law was brought to bear on the investigation.

4. (figuratively) The literary devices used in a work, notably for dramatic effect

• heavy machinery
• political machinery

• machinist

• “machinery”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “machinery”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• hemicrany