[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

machinery \machin"ery\ m.ash=en"~ery^, 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
see also:
machine 

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

machinery
     n 1: machines or machine systems collectively
     2: 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"

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

213 moby thesaurus words for "machinery":
   accouterments, action, adding machine, addressing machine, agency,
   agent, all-crop harvester, apparatus, appliance, appliances,
   appointments, appurtenances, armament, automobile, backhoe, baler,
   bean harvester, beet harvester, binder, breaker, bulldozer,
   calfdozer, carryall, cast plow, channel, clockworks, combine,
   compressor, contraption, contrivance, convenience, conveniences,
   cotton picker, crab, crane, crimping machine, cultivator,
   cutting machine, cutting press, derrick, device, dishwasher, disk,
   disk harrow, disk plow, drag, dredge, dredger, dredging machine,
   drill, drill plow, drive, drive train, drop hammer, duffel,
   dumping machine, edger, elevator dredge, engine, enginery,
   equipage, equipment, expedient, facilities, facility, fittings,
   fixture, fixtures, folding machine, four-bottom plow, furnishings,
   furniture, gadget, gang plow, gear, gin, going between, grader,
   grain harvester, grub hook, habiliments, harrow, harvester,
   haymaker, header, hoe drill, hoist, hydraulic press, impedimenta,
   implement, innards, installations, instrument, instrumentality,
   intermediation, kit, lawn mower, lister, lister cultivator,
   machine, machine drill, mailing machine, materiel, means,
   mechanical aid, mechanical device, mechanism, mediation, medium,
   middlebreaker, moldboard plow, motion, motive power, motor,
   motorcycle, movement, movements, mower, munition, munitions, navvy,
   organ, outfit, packager, paraphernalia, peg-tooth harrow,
   pile driver, planing machine, plant, planter, plow, plow drill,
   plumbing, power mower, power plant, power shovel, power source,
   power train, prairie breaker, press, press drill, printing machine,
   pulp machine, punching machine, pusher, rake, recourse, resort,
   rig, rigging, roller, rose engine, rotary plow, ruling machine,
   saw machine, scooter, scraper, screwing machine, seed plow, seeder,
   service, servomechanism, sewer, sewing machine, shovel plow,
   snap machine, snow-thrower, snowblower, snowplow, solar machine,
   sprayer, spring-tooth harrow, stag gang, steam hammer,
   steam shovel, steamroller, stock-in-trade, subsoil plow,
   sulky lister, sulky plow, swather, swivel plow, tackle, tackling,
   tedder, things, thrasher, three-bottom plow, thresher,
   threshing machine, tool, tractor, trench plow, triphammer,
   turnplow, two-bottom plow, typewriter, typing machine, utensil,
   utensils, utility, vehicle, vineyard plow, walking plow,
   washing machine, watchworks, water wheel, wheels,
   wheels within wheels, windlass, windrower, workings, works

Machinery >> M Words
Machinery, definition of term: Machinery
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