clockwork

American  

[klok-wurk] / ˈklɒkˌwɜrk /

noun

clockworks plural

1. the mechanism of a clock.

2. any mechanism similar to that of a clock.

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idioms

1. like clockwork, with perfect regularity or precision.

   The launching of the spacecraft went off like clockwork.

clockwork British  

/ ˈklɒkˌwɜːk /

noun

1. the mechanism of a clock

2. any similar mechanism, as in a wind-up toy

3. with complete regularity and precision

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• clockworks
  plural

Etymology

Origin of clockwork

First recorded in 1620–30; clock ¹ + work

Example Sentences

At the time, she recalled how her father edited films such as Clockwork Orange in the garage.

From BBC • May 24, 2025

Hours after the episode aired, McDowell — the teen son of “A Clockwork Orange” star Malcolm McDowell — shared in a since-expired Instagram story that he was the missing singer.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2023

In part, his declining fortunes were self-inflicted, according to his friend Malcolm McDowell, the star of Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 21, 2022

Ms. Carlos also used the Moog to conjure the foreboding sound of a dystopian future on the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film, “A Clockwork Orange.”

From New York Times • Dec. 16, 2022

Clockwork, of course, was not a seventeenth-century innovation.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton