machination
Americannoun
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an act or instance of machinating.
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Usually machinations. crafty schemes; plots; intrigues.
noun
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an intrigue, plot, or scheme
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the act of devising plots or schemes
Other Word Forms
- antimachination adjective
Etymology
Origin of machination
1375–1425; late Middle English machinacion < Latin māchinātiōn- (stem of māchinātiō ). See machinate, -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Both follow the news obsessively, tracking every machination in the former president’s legal drama.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2023
All of this happens while victims’ families wait for justice, essentially as observers to the legal machination and maneuvers.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2023
Another strange Pentagon machination was the proposal Miller floated in mid-December to separate the code-breaking National Security Agency from U.S.
From Washington Post • Dec. 26, 2020
The film is transparent in the sense that you can see through everything it's doing, and it's so brazen about each machination that you can't help laughing.
From Salon • Apr. 20, 2011
If Burr's machination with the English minister to effect a separation of the western States were still unknown, there was little doubt about his plans.
From Thomas Jefferson The Apostle of Americanism by Chinard, Gilbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.