noun

• 1A system of parts working together in a machine; a piece of machinery.

  ‘a third motor powers the tape eject mechanism’

  More example sentences

  • ‘These two holes must be coordinated so the mechanism will properly fit together.’
  • ‘The slight hiss is, to my ears, about the same as the tape mechanism in my van - maybe even a bit less.’
  • ‘Our clock is a superb piece of engineering, and has a mechanism that is almost identical to Big Ben in London.’
  • ‘All this is conventional, except for the projection forward of present-day mechanisms and gadgetry.’
  • ‘Protecting lift shafts and mechanisms so they can safely be used for evacuation should also be considered.’
  • ‘Staff were also seen checking the mechanism which worked the electronic security gates at the end of the drive.’
  • ‘As soon as they are about to hit the trigger mechanism, bang the coin-return button.’
  • ‘However, it is rather puzzling that only in this part of the zones such triggering mechanisms did not operate.’
  • ‘Gears are precision mechanisms only if quality is consistent from tooth to tooth.’
  • ‘These trigger mechanisms depend on several conditions being ‘right’ at the same time.’
  • ‘In his mind Harry began going over the internal mechanisms of this particular old heap of unobliging metal.’
  • ‘Felix is a very clever engineer who designs mechanisms that in the end are very simple and also easy to maintain.’
  • ‘A bright spark shot up the length of the bolt into the chamber of the locking mechanism, triggering the circuitry to release the lock.’
  • ‘A lift mechanism for raising the tray carrier into the enclosure is also disclosed.’
  • ‘Children had to be able to tolerate and avoid touching the catheter and the pump mechanism.’
  • ‘The engineer was one of her agents, and he had a special mechanism in the engine.’
  • ‘He ducked at the sound of the trigger mechanism and dodged the gunfire completely.’
  • ‘The mechanism for lifting the grate lay in a concealed room of the cave that was on the right of the stairs.’
  • ‘The valve train consists of the valves and a mechanism that opens and closes them.’
  • ‘Over his own grunts and snarls, he failed to hear the snap of the trigger mechanism.’

  Synonyms

  apparatus, machine, appliance, tool, device, implement, utensil, instrument, contraption, contrivance, gadget, tackle, structure, system

  machinery, workings, works, movement, motion, action, gear, gears, wheels, components, motor, engine, power source

  procedure, process, system, operation, method, technique, workings, means, medium, agency, channel, channels, vehicle, structure

  View synonyms

• 2A natural or established process by which something takes place or is brought about.

  ‘the immune system's mechanism for detecting pathogens’

  More example sentences

  • ‘It is also of significance in new drug development based on the mechanism of Chinese medicine.’
  • ‘It pulverises those delicate social mechanisms that control our baser motives.’
  • ‘Rather, they encourage the body's own healing mechanisms to restore its natural equilibrium.’
  • ‘Many organisms have natural mechanisms for protecting themselves from the toxic effects of metals.’
  • ‘The Iraqi people must have an effective mechanism to bring complaints against soldiers who abuse their human rights.’
  • ‘Higher plants have developed several elaborate mechanisms to ward off pathogen attack.’
  • ‘Extensive investigations have failed to detect such a mechanism of gene transfer in crop plants.’
  • ‘There were also more general mechanisms which brought private life under the public gaze.’
  • ‘However, the underlying mechanism that brings about this restriction is less well understood.’
  • ‘The conference also established the mechanism through which the Alliance would operate.’
  • ‘Many of our mechanisms to develop and deliver rights protection contain covert begging processes.’
  • ‘The site has a simple registration process and a mechanism to ensure that both the seller and buyer get a fair deal.’
  • ‘A plebiscite process is a democratic mechanism to ensure that the people get to choose.’
  • ‘Natural selection is a mechanism for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability.’
  • ‘There is now no doubt that natural selection is a mechanism of evolutionary change.’
  • ‘All of these coping mechanisms have had a serious impact on the function of the family.’
  • ‘Administration would be based on existing interprovincial mechanisms, the report says.’
  • ‘Could it be that our coping mechanisms are working for us and therefore we don't think it's so much of a challenge?’
  • ‘It is an uncertainty she lives with every day, but her coping mechanisms have got better over the years.’
  • ‘Also known as splitting, there is some suggestion that this arises in early childhood as a coping mechanism.’

  Synonyms

  procedure, process, system, operation, method, technique, workings, means, medium, agency, channel, channels, vehicle, structure

  View synonyms

  1. 2.1A contrivance in the plot of a literary work.
     ‘his Irma La Douce is a musical based on the farce mechanism’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The internal struggles of the group are hopelessly dramatised, reading off like the plot mechanisms that they are.’
     • ‘Shakespeare uses all the mechanisms of alienation, including self-conscious reference to the theatrical situation, interpolated songs, and schematic or symbolic representation of abstract ideas.’
     • ‘For novelists more interested in reanimating history, the varieties of his characters' personal languages, and the double-plot mechanism of the history plays themselves, modelled ways of representing the imagined past.’

• 3Philosophy
  mass noun The doctrine that all natural phenomena, including life and thought, can be explained with reference to mechanical or chemical processes.

  ‘Much of this controversy stemmed from the argument of mechanism versus vitalism.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘For Bergson, it is because the scientific pursuit is based on the principle of mechanism.’
  • ‘Yet mechanism and postmodernism are linked by a common distrust of human subjectivity.’
  • ‘It is a different type of physics than that peddled by mechanism.’
  • ‘It was based on antiquated natural history; he was unaffected by mechanism or Newtonianism.’