machinate

[mak-uh-neyt]

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.

machinate

/ ˈmæʃ-, ˈmækɪˌneɪt /

verb

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

Other Word Forms

• machinator noun
• unmachinated adjective
• unmachinating adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of machinate¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of machinate¹

C17: from Latin māchinārī to plan, from māchina _machine

Example Sentences

Do we really want to incentivize vigilantes like YouTube copycat Skeet Hansen, seen in the documentary machinating and uploading his own stakeouts, pitiful farces of justice with the catchphrase “You’ve just been Skeeted”?

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“He’s been in power, he’s clung to power, he’s machinated to stay in power for all these years, and he’s an ethno-nationalist,” Levin, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said of Netanyahu.

Read more on Washington Post

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.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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.

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In an email, he wrote, “Social justice warriors machinate to get speakers canceled, and social networks purge conservatives, for the same reason: no-platforming works.”

Read more on New York Times