Definition of "machinery" []

• Machines or machine parts considered as a group. (noun)
• The working parts of a particular machine. (noun)
• A system of related elements that operate in a definable manner: diplomatic and political machinery. (noun)
• A device or means of achieving or effecting a result. (noun)
• A literary device for bringing about an effect, such as a happy ending. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The remarkable thing about the machinery is the extent to which it truly functions in the way you and I imagine or think of a machine."
• "The great rotary presses in the basement of the _Record_ building had filled him with a new enthusiasm: he had painted there, and Sir James had bought at sight, what he called a machinery-scape in the manner of Heinrich Kley."
• "Milly would, if she could, have stuck her fingers into what she called the machinery of the thing."