machinery

Machines or machine parts considered as a group.

The working parts of a particular machine.

A system of related elements that operate in a definable manner.

A device or means of achieving or effecting a result.

A literary device for bringing about an effect, such as a happy ending.

The parts of a machine considered collectively; any combination of mechanical means designed to work together so as to effect a given end: as, the machinery of a watch, or of a canal-lock.

Machines collectively; a congeries or assemblage of machines: as, the machinery of a cotton-mill is often moved by a single wheel.

Any complex system of means and appliances, not mechanical, designed to carry on any particular work, or keep anything in action, or to effect a specific purpose or end: as, the machinery of government.

Specifically, the agencies, particularly if supernatural, by which the plot of an epic or dramatic poem, or other imaginative work, is carried on and conducted to the catastrophe.