machinery

[muh-shee-nuh-ree] /məˈʃi nə ri/
noun, plural machineries.
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.
Origin
1680-90; machine + -ery
Related forms
antimachinery, adjective
Synonyms
3. organization, structure, setup.
Examples from the web for machinery
  • All those circles around the pots and acting as a decorative mulch are pressure gaskets and seals from industry machinery.
  • The danger of being crushed by heavy machinery was ever present.
  • However, having the raw biological machinery of intelligence is simply irreplaceable.
  • The group also devotes time to agricultural machinery, including a potato-planting machine.
  • Physical capital-Plant and machinery and tools and trucks.
  • The machinery of media consumption seems to be the only way to pressure him.
  • His first subjects were people he would see on the streets and rusty machinery that he felt captured society in decay.
  • Farmers might become entirely energy-independent, running all their machinery directly from a fraction of their crops.
  • Inventors kept working to improve steam power on the land, especially for use with heavy harvesting machinery.
  • The coring machinery is complex, but it can be boiled down to a few elements.
British Dictionary definitions for machinery

machinery

/məˈʃiːnərɪ/
noun (pl) -eries
1.
machines, machine parts, or machine systems collectively
2.
a particular machine system or set of machines
3.
a system similar to a machine: the machinery of government
4.
literary devices used for effect in epic poetry
Word Origin and History for machinery
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.).

Slang definitions & phrases for machinery

machinery

noun
  1. A drug user's paraphernalia; artillery (1940s+ Narcotics)
  2. The male genitals: You could see the bulge of his machinery there at the crotch (1980s+)