machinate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
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
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
Match-making mas may machinate, Manœuvring misses me mis-ween; Mere money may make many mate, My magic motto's "Madeline!"
From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn
"It was more a signal of allowance and encouragement than something completely machinated by an image maker."
From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2017
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
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 Kite, Elizabeth S.
The angel said to Joseph, "They are dead who machinated against the child's life."
From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham
"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 Richardson, Samuel
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.
