mechanical
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /məˈkænɪkəl/
ipa: /məˈkænəkəl/
Forms: form: more mechanical
form: most mechanical
Etymology: From Middle English mechanical, mechanicalle, mechanycalle, equivalent to mechanic + -al.
Senses: examples: text: Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance and contagious prison,
Haled thither by most mechanical and dirty hand.
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
text: all manner of silks were already become so vile and abject, that was any man seene to weare them, he was presently judged to be some countrie fellow, or mechanicall man.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 43, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
glosses: Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.
examples: text: mechanical engineering
glosses: Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on matter).
examples: text: mechanical dictionary
glosses: Related to mechanics (the design and construction of machines).
examples: text: mechanical task
glosses: Done by machine.
examples: text: mechanical arm
glosses: Using mechanics (the design and construction of machines): being a machine.
examples: text: a mechanical reply to a question
glosses: As if performed by a machine: lifeless, mindless, thoughtless, automatic.
examples: text: The pianist was too mechanical.
text: Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: Why don't you ask Joe to fix it? He's very mechanical.
glosses: Handy with machines.
Derived terms: acoustomechanical
aeromechanical
biomechanical
bio-mechanical
chemomechanical
cytomechanical
elastomechanical
electro-mechanical
electromechanical
electro-mechanical computer
endomechanical
geomechanical
histomechanical
hydromechanical
iatromechanical
immechanical
logical mechanical element
macromechanical
magnetomechanical
mechanical advantage
mechanical bank
mechanical bull
mechanical digestion
mechanical energy
mechanical engineer
mechanical engineering
mechanical eraser
mechanical erasure
mechanical game
mechanical horse
mechanical horsepower
mechanicality
mechanicalization
mechanicalize
mechanical keyboard
mechanical larynx
mechanical lithosphere
mechanically
mechanical mouse
mechanicalness
mechanical pencil
mechanical shovel
mechanical splice
mechanical stoker
mechanical sympathy
micro-electro-mechanical
micromechanical
morphomechanical
musicomechanical
nano-electro-mechanical
nanomechanical
neuromechanical
nonmechanical
optomechanical
osmomechanical
palaeomechanical
pathomechanical
pharmacomechanical
photomechanical
physicomechanical
physiomechanical
piezomechanical
poromechanical
postmechanical
premechanical
pyromechanical
quantum mechanical
quantum-mechanical
semimechanical
statistical mechanical
telemechanical
thermomechanical
tribomechanical
unmechanical
vibromechanical
wave-mechanical
Related terms: mechanic
mechanics
mechanism