Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A mechanism of geared wheels driven by a wound spring, as in a mechanical clock.
- idiom (like clockwork) With machinelike regularity and precision; perfectly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The machinery and movements of a clock; any complex mechanism of wheels producing regularity or precision of movement.
- noun Figuratively, any regulated system by which work is performed steadily and without confusion, as if by machinery.
- Marked by machine-like regularity of operation: as, a clockwork system; clockwork movements.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The machinery of a clock, or machinery resembling that of a clock; machinery which produces regularity of movement.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
mechanism powered by acoiled spring andregulated by some form ofescapement ; thepower istransmitted throughtoothed gearwheels and used todrive amechanical clock ,toy , or otherdevice .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any mechanism of geared wheels that is driven by a coiled spring; resembles the works of a mechanical clock
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And in the trained-animal world, where turns must go off like clockwork, is little or no space for persuasion.
CHAPTER XXXIII 2010
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The clockwork is radiocontrolled and the timedots (the dots that mark the hours) comes in 3 different sizes and colours.
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And in the trained-animal world, where turns must go off like clockwork, is little or no space for persuasion.
Chapter 33 1917
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You'll note that in these and many other cases the joy of seeing these works of art appear every month like clockwork is short-lived.
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You'll note that in these and many other cases the joy of seeing these works of art appear every month like clockwork is short-lived.
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You'll note that in these and many other cases the joy of seeing these works of art appear every month like clockwork is short-lived.
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Seriously, it seems a lot of people who focus on current biological science become remarkably 'reductionist' and in many ways are still thinking of the universe as a 'clockwork' - that idea has been outdated in physics for over century, time for Richard Dawkins to catch up.
Fibonacci Patterns James Gurney 2010
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Then Donna Scott at a small magazine called Visionary Tongue asked me to write a short story, so I used it as a test-bed to play around with the idea of clockwork vampires.
Interview with Andy Remic (Interviewed by Mihir Wanchoo) Liviu 2009
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So no surprise that the clockwork was the symbol for science and progress – just like we use the computer analogy for how the brain works.
The Mechanical World View – or why van Gogh’s can’t be simulated | ultraorange.net 2008
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They were first written down by Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century and gave rise to a general view of nature known as the clockwork universe.
whichbe commented on the word clockwork
(idiomatic) With perfect regularity and precision; faultless.
July 6, 2008
100001545578347 commented on the word clockwork
Ah, I had trouble finding the figurative definition in other dictionaries -- and Worknik had two! I was wondering what "The Clockwork Nebari" meant, precisely.
* Figuratively, any regulated system by which work is performed steadily and without confusion, as if by machinery
* Marked by machine-like regularity of operation: as, a clockwork system; clockwork movements.
September 28, 2011