machinate

American  

[mak-uh-nayt] / ˈmæk əˌneɪt /

verb (used with or without object)

machinated, machinating

1. to contrive or plot, especially artfully or with evil purpose.

   to machinate the overthrow of the government.

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machinate British  

/ ˈmækɪˌneɪt, ˈmæʃ- /

verb

1. (usually tr) to contrive, plan, or devise (schemes, plots, etc)

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Other Word Forms

• machinator
  noun
• unmachinated
  adjective
• unmachinating
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of machinate

First recorded in 1540–50; from Latin māchinātus, past participle of māchinārī “to invent, contrive, devise artfully”; see origin at machine, -ate ¹

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Explanation

To machinate is to scheme or plan something. You might, for example, machinate a way to defeat the more popular candidate in an election for school president. You can use the verb machinate in two ways: to arrange or plan in a carefully detailed way, or to plot in an equally careful but somewhat sneaky or underhanded way. While a teacher might machinate to best organize and inspire her class, a movie villain also machinates in order to defeat the hero. Both meanings come from the same root, the noun machination, "plotting or intrigue," which is ultimately rooted in the Latin machina, "device or machine."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

machinate machinated machinating

Ms. Johansson defended herself by arguing that the character “has a human brain in an entirely machinate body,” and said, “I would never attempt to play a person of a different race, obviously.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2017

It urges those who work in it to agglutinate and machinate.

From Economist ● Oct. 27, 2016

But that leaves plenty of legislative detail, if the Lib Dems machinate wisely, for the two parties to find common cause over.

From Economist ● Jun. 11, 2015

And whatever the 20th century gods do, they don't machinate.

From Time Magazine Archive

But we leave the beauteous Kate and her mischief-loving maiden, to plot and machinate against the unsuspecting lover.

From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 by John Roby

While the image was almost certainly stage-managed, "it wasn't completely machinated or fabricated," says Mr Madden, who is with the US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University.

From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2017

"It was more a signal of allowance and encouragement than something completely machinated by an image maker."

From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2017

His influence over Wilson was early supplanted by Colonel House, who pulled strings, machinated quietly, buzzed around in one department after the other.

From Time Magazine Archive

Calumny machinated in secret and struck out in the darkness?

From Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence by Elizabeth S. Kite

Kitty was still the stalking-horse behind which, for whatever reasons, he machinated.

From The Story of Louie by Oliver [pseud.] Onions

"I was not going to allow a day of any further machinating and web-weaving around me because I've had enough," she declared, before telling Rachel in front of everyone: "I'm onto you."

From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2026

But college enrollment had exploded in the ‘60s; there was now a mass audience eager to see itself in Benjamin, the “graduate” who steals his life back from the machinating hypocrites.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2021

But my father, meanwhile, I didn’t know this at the time, was busy machinating on behalf of the United States to keep the oil flowing to the West.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2020

But hustlers have a nasty side. ’s characters are striving and machinating and tortured, and yet so beloved by Russell they are never in any real danger.

From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2014

But her apparent willingness to think well of a spirit so inventive, and so machinating, is a happy prognostic for me.

From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 4 by Samuel Richardson

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