MACHINE, noun [Latin machina.] An artificial work, simple or complicated, that serves to apply or regulate moving power, or to produce motion, so as to save time or force. The simple machines are the six mechanical powers, viz.; the lever, the pulley, the axis and wheel, the wedge, the screw, and the inclined plane. Complicated machines are such as combine two or more of these powers for the production of motion or force.

1. An engine; an instrument of force.

With inward arms the dire machine they load.

2. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced into a poem to perform some exploit.