Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to machines or tools.
  • adjective Operated or produced by a mechanism or machine.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or governed by mechanics.
  • adjective Performed or performing in an impersonal or machinelike manner; automatic.
  • adjective Relating to, produced by, or dominated by physical forces.
  • adjective Philosophy Interpreting and explaining the phenomena of the universe by referring to causally determined material forces; mechanistic.
  • adjective Of or relating to manual labor, its tools, and its skills.
  • noun A layout consisting of type proofs, artwork, or both, exactly positioned and prepared for making an offset or other printing plate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or exhibiting constructive power; of or pertaining to mechanism or machinery; also, dependent upon the use of mechanism; of the nature or character of a machine or machinery: as, mechanical inventions or contrivances; to do something by mechanical means.
  • Machine-like; acting or actuated by or as if by machinery, or by fixed routine; lacking spontaneity, spirit, individuality, etc.; as applied to actions, automatic, instinctive, unconscious, etc.: as, the mechanical action of the heart; a mechanical musician.
  • Having the characteristics of that which is produced by machinery or is artificially contrived; artificial; not spontaneous; not genuine or of natural growth; lacking life or spirit; humdrum.
  • Of or pertaining to the material forces of nature acting on inanimate bodies or masses; specifically, pertaining to the principles or laws of mechanics: as, the mechanical effects of frost; the mechanical powers.
  • Effected by material force or forces; consisting in the play of material forces: as, mechanical pressure.
  • Exalting the material forces of the universe above the spiritual; subordinating the spiritual to the material; materialistic: as, the mechanical philosophy (specifically, atomism); a mechanical view of life.
  • Belonging to or characteristic of mechanics or artisans, or their class; mechanic-like; having the character or status of an artisan; hence (chiefly in old writings), mean, low, or vulgar.
  • Engaged in operating machines or machinery, or in superintending their operation: as, a mechanical engineer.
  • Exhibiting or indicating skill in contrivance, invention, or the use of tools and machines: as, a mechanical genius; a mechanical turn of mind.
  • Effected or controlled by physical forces that are not chemical: as, a mechanical mixture (that is, one in which the several ingredients still retain their identity, and are held together by no special force whether of cohesion or chemical attraction); mechanical decomposition.—
  • noun A mechanic.
  • noun plural The trade-name for common articles, such as overshoes, of vulcanized india-rubber, made by molding, and often of old reworked material.

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

  • noun obsolete A mechanic.
  • adjective Pertaining to, governed by, or in accordance with, mechanics, or the laws of motion; pertaining to the quantitative relations of force and matter on a macroscopic scale, as distinguished from mental, vital, chemical, electrical, electronic, atomic etc.;
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a machine or to machinery or tools; made or formed by a machine or with tools
  • adjective Done as if by a machine; uninfluenced by will or emotion; proceeding automatically, or by habit, without special intention or reflection
  • adjective Made and operated by interaction of forces without a directing intelligence.
  • adjective Obtained by trial, by measurements, etc.; approximate; empirical. See the 2d Note under Geometric.
  • adjective effective power; useful work exerted, as by a machine, in a definite time.
  • adjective See the Note under Engineering.
  • adjective (Mil.) the application of mechanical appliances to the mounting, dismounting, and moving of artillery.
  • adjective the principles of mechanics applied to the investigation of physical phenomena.
  • adjective certain simple instruments, such as the lever and its modifications (the wheel and axle and the pulley), the inclined plane with its modifications (the screw and the wedge), which convert a small force acting through a great space into a great force acting through a small space, or vice versa, and are used separately or in combination.
  • adjective (Math.) a solution of a problem by any art or contrivance not strictly geometrical, as by means of the ruler and compasses, or other instruments.

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

  • adjective Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.
  • adjective Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on mass).
  • adjective Related to mechanics (the design and construction of machines).
  • adjective Done by machine.
  • adjective Using mechanics (the design and construction of machines): being a machine.
  • adjective As if performed by a machine: lifeless or mindless.
  • adjective of a person Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.
  • adjective informal Handy with machines.

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

  • adjective using (or as if using) mechanisms or tools or devices
  • adjective relating to or concerned with machinery or tools
  • adjective relating to or governed by or in accordance with mechanics

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin mēchanicus +‎ -al.

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