Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A worker skilled in making, using, or repairing machines, vehicles, and tools.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A professional card-shuffler usually employed to deal faro in brace games.
  • Same as mechanical: now used chiefly in the phrase the mechanic arts.
  • Belonging to or characteristic of the class of mechanics; common; vulgar; mean.
  • Supporting the atomistic philosophy.
  • noun Mechanic art; mechanics.
  • noun Mechanism; structure.
  • noun A maker of machines or machinery; hence, any skilled worker with tools; one who has learned a trade; a workman whose occupation consists in the systematic manipulation and constructive shaping or application of materials; an artificer, artisan, or craftsman.
  • noun One who works mechanically; one who follows routine or rule in an occupation requiring careful thought or study: used opprobriously: as, a mere literary mechanic; the picture shows the artist to be only a mechanic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The art of the application of the laws of motion or force to construction.
  • noun A mechanician; an artisan; an artificer; one who practices any mechanic art; one skilled or employed in shaping and uniting materials, as wood, metal, etc., into any kind of structure, machine, or other object, requiring the use of tools, or instruments. Also, a technician who maintains or repairs machinery.
  • adjective Having to do with the application of the laws of motion in the art of constructing or making things; of or pertaining to mechanics; mechanical.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a mechanic or artificer, or to the class of artisans; hence, rude; common; vulgar.
  • adjective obsolete Base.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective archaic mechanical; relating to the laws of motion in the art of constructing things
  • adjective obsolete Of or relating to a mechanic or artificer, or to the class of artisans; hence, rude; common; vulgar.
  • adjective obsolete base
  • noun A skilled worker capable of building or repairing machinery. A mechanic can be compared to a technician, the distinction being that the technician is stronger in theory, the mechanic stronger in hands-on experience.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective resembling the action of a machine
  • noun a craftsman skilled in operating machine tools
  • noun someone whose occupation is repairing and maintaining automobiles

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English, mechanical, from Old French mecanique, from Latin mēchanicus, from Greek mēkhanikos, from mēkhanē, machine, device; see magh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English mechanike ("mechanic art"), from Old French mecanique, from Latin mechanicus ("of or belonging to machines or mechanics, inventive"), from Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikos, "pertaining to machines or contrivance, mechanic, ingenious, inventive"), from μηχανή (mēkhanē, "a machine, contrivance"); see machine.

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