machinery

n. [ From Machine: cf. F. machinerie. ] 1. Machines, in general, or collectively. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The working parts of a machine, engine, or instrument; as, the machinery of a watch. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The supernatural means by which the action of a poetic or fictitious work is carried on and brought to a catastrophe; in an extended sense, the contrivances by which the crises and conclusion of a fictitious narrative, in prose or verse, are effected. [ 1913 Webster ]

The machinery, madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that part which the deities, angels, or demons, are made to act in a poem. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The means and appliances by which anything is kept in action or a desired result is obtained; a complex system of parts adapted to a purpose. [ 1913 Webster ]

An indispensable part of the machinery of state. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

The delicate inflexional machinery of the Aryan languages. I. Taylor (The Alphabet). [ 1913 Webster ]