Crossword clues for machination
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Machination \Mach`i*na"tion\, n. [L. machinatio: cf. F. machination.]
The act of machinating.
--Shak.-
That which is devised; a device; a hostile or treacherous scheme; an artful design or plot.
Devilish machinations come to naught.
--Milton.His ingenious machinations had failed.
--Macaulay.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 15c., "a plotting, intrigue," from Old French machinacion "plot, conspiracy, scheming, intrigue," from Latin machinationem (nominative machinatio) "device, contrivance, machination," noun of action from past participle stem of machinari "contrive skillfully, to design; to scheme, to plot," from machina (see machine (n.)). Related: Machinations.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A clever scheme or artful plot, usually crafted for evil purposes. 2 The act of machinate or plotting.
WordNet
n. a crafty and involved plot to achieve your (usually sinister) ends [syn: intrigue]
Usage examples of "machination".
But then such simpleminded braggadocio is appreciated in soldiers, who are largely cannon fodder for international economic and political machinations.
He had not realized all the undercurrents beneath the carefully contrived public image of Padrugoi, much less the machinations of Ludmilla Barchenka, who had forced the capitulation of Centers, ruthlessly stripping them of kinetics in what was basically a face-saving operation.
They incessantly labored, by dark and treacherous machinations, to deprive him of the esteem of the prince, the respect of the people, and the friendship of the Barbarians.
Tax extortion, bribery, political machinations, personality cults, and moral laxity abounded.
A victim of his own choices and, as Ranunculus had put it, the machinations of tired old men.
The Guardians of Selfhood will always be ready to thwart its machinations, right to the very end.
His Prussian majesty hath had the satisfaction to live, for several successive years, in the strictest harmony with the reigning empress: and this happy union would be still subsisting, if evil-minded potentates had not broke it by their secret machinations, and carried things to such a height, that the ministers on both sides have been recalled, and the correspondence broken off.
If Nina had included Willi in her plans, there would be no need for such absurd machinations.
On the twenty-fourth, at a meeting in Amman to commemorate the first anniversary of the ACC, Saddam gave a long speech in which he said that as a result of the decline of the USSR, the Arab world needed to band together to oppose American and Israeli machinations.
I, yachtsman, charterer, small-time businessman, an escapee if you like into the lotus life of the Mediterranean, to know, or even to understand, the machinations of those far removed from the little Balearic island of Menorca?
If I had been counsellor to the basileus, I would have advised him not to recur to such childish machinations.
Indra Sen and Hamar will guide you to the jungle and point the way toward the great river that lies in the direction of the rising sun, upon whose opposite shore you will be safe from the machination of Beng Kher and Bharata Rahon.
I discovered I was a highly skilled assassin and, while looking at the world through the glimpses of it that Coyote provided, 1 discovered that the person I had become did not want to have anything to do with Fiddleback and his machinations.
Chicano gangs are so tough not even the hardiest newspaper reporters can get in to report the machinations of warfare.
Moorhead and intercorporate political machinations were abruptly forgotten.