mechanical

UK/məˈkænɪkəl//məˈkænəkəl/

mechanical adjective: characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.

Adjective

mechanical (comparative more mechanical, superlative most mechanical)

(archaic) Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.
- Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
  Is in base durance and contagious prison,
  Haled thither by most mechanical and dirty hand.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- all manner of silks were already become so vile and abject, that was any man seene to weare them, he was presently judged to be some countrie fellow, or mechanicall man.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 43, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on matter).
- mechanical engineering
Related to mechanics (the design and construction of machines).
- mechanical dictionary
Done by machine.
- mechanical task
Using mechanics (the design and construction of machines): being a machine.
- mechanical arm
(figuratively) As if performed by a machine: lifeless, mindless, thoughtless, automatic.
- a mechanical reply to a question
Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.
- The pianist was too mechanical.
- Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
(informal) Handy with machines.
- Why don't you ask Joe to fix it? He's very mechanical.
Relating to the mechanics of a game.
- the mechanical aspects of a trading card game
- Having the mechanical imperative of scenery improving your park rating helps motivate me, admittedly, but I still appreciate the power and potential in the toolset.2025 February, Rick Lane, “Review: Planet Coaster 2”, in PC Gamer (US), number 392, pages 68-69; published online 1 November 2024

Noun

mechanical (plural mechanicals)

Manually created layout of artwork that is camera ready for photographic reproduction.
- Since we are dealing with copy in paste-up form, we are now concerned with the preparation and assembly of elements suitable for camera-ready copy, positioned on the mechanical according to the rough layout supplied.1980, Henry C. Latimer, Production planning and repro mechanicals for offset printing, page 92
- We'll start with a simple mechanical for a standard 7" x 10" ad, using one block of copy, some display type, and one picture.1982, Jerry Demoney, Susan E. Meyer, Pasteups & mechanicals: a step-by-step guide to preparing art for reproduction
Synonyms:

pasteup
One who does manual labor, especially one who is similar to Shakespeare's rude mechanicals.
- Rude mechanicals must know their place in a horsey army.1989, A J Smithers, Rude Mechanicals: An account of Tank Maturity during the Second World War, →ISBN, page 3
- Furthermore, when the play juxtaposes aristocratic violence with artisanal civility, it shows the artisans as the social group that better embodies civility, and the mocking accusations of bestial inferiority leveled at the mechanicals by the aristrocratic characters are revealed as a hollow...2011, Ronda Arab, Manly Mechanicals on the Early Modern English Stage, →ISBN
A robot or mechanical creature.
- Is it a mechanical, or a man in a clockwork suit?2012, Cindy Spencer Pape, Moonlight & Mechanicals, →ISBN, page 90
- Mechanicals arose when advanced, organic societies somehow committed suicide, from war, degeneration, unimaginable things -- or retreated, from plain simple lack of interest in the tensions of the technological life.2013, Gregory Benford, Sailing Bright Eternity: Galactic Centre, →ISBN
A mechanical engineer.
- When the older courses had been separated from the literary curriculum eight years the civils, mechanicals and electricals had changed their relative positions four times.1910, Michigan Alumnus - Volume 16, page 302
- A membership campaign was carried on early in the year and quite a number of the new mechanicals were reached, as well as a number of the old men who had slipped by the wayside.1920, The Kansas Engineer - Issues 6-8, page 24
An instance of equipment failure.
- The pack are suffering mechanicals and pull up under a lamp post marking a right turn.2010, Andy Allsopp, Barring Mechanicals - from London to Edinburgh and Back, on a Recumbent Bicycle, →ISBN, page 96
- Equipment back then was less capable than it is today, and we often had to deal with mechanical failures, also called mechanicals and the odd injury which we called 'bio-mechanicals'.2012, Clive Forth, The Pocket Mountain Bike Trail Guide: Your slope saviour, →ISBN, page 11
A stop on an organ that is operated by a hand or foot control rather than having to be manually set up in advance.
- On the other hand I heard only recently of a modern marvel — an organ of two manuals and about sixteen or eighteen stops with adequate and modern mechanicals that the pastor assures me has not been touched by repairer or even by tuner in four years!1914, Expositor and Current Anecdotes - Volume 16, page 353
- Some would like the smallest number of foot mechanicals and the greatest number of hand mechanicals; some would like to do away with the crescendo pedal; some would prefer less diapason foundation; others would want a predominance of salty reeds ;1911, The New Music Review and Church Music Review
(archaic) A machine that performs a job typically accomplished using an animal or manual labor.
- Roland jumped on the horse and with herculean strength picked her up one armed and plopped her down in front of him. “I've had my fill of mechanicals of late. Hold on.”2012, Lyn Brittan, Of Magic and Engineering, →ISBN
- Above all things, I liked to hear about horseless carriages and self-powered mechanicals, but I'd settle for ghosts at a pinch.2014, Delia Sherman, Young Woman in a Garden: Stories, →ISBN

mechanical meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

mechanical in Hindi

mechanical: यांत्रिक yāntrik, अभियांत्रिक abhiyāntrik

mechanical in Tamil

இயக்கமுறை, எந்திரமுறை, பொறியியல், இயந்திரமயமாக, சீர்தூக்காது, பொறிமுறையான

mechanical in Marathi

mechanical: यांत्रिक yāntrik

mechanical in Bengali

mechanical: যান্ত্রিক jantrik

More languagesFewer languages

mechanical in Malayalam: യാന്ത്രിക, യന്ത്രവൽക്കൃത, യന്ത്രവൽക്കരിക്കപ്പെട്ട, താനെ പ്രവർത്തിക്കുന്ന
mechanical in Kannada: ಯಂತ್ರಗಳಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ್ದು, ಯಂತ್ರದರಿಮೆ, ಕಸುವಿನ
mechanical in Punjabi: ਮਸ਼ੀਨੀ maśīnī
mechanical in Tagalog: sigmuin
mechanical in Arabic: مِيكَانِيكِيّ mīkānīkiyy
mechanical in Malay: mekanikal
mechanical in Indonesian: mekanis

Examples of mechanical in a sentence

In order to produce the posters, the advertising agency purchases photographs, composition and artwork and fabricates such property to produce layouts and mechanicals.2009, New York State Sales and Use Tax Law and Regulations:
This is an example of what can take place when mechanicals are programmed with human attributes and designed to interact closely with humans.2013, Alan Dean Foster, Greenthieves, →ISBN:
"What I need is more engineers, mechanicals, especially."2012, Allan Young, The Return of the Prairie Rose, →ISBN, page 4:
The support can be there when you need it for major mechanicals, other emergencies and to transport all your gear to the next overnight stop.2014, Vince Major, The Smoke Ring - An Orbital Route Around London, →ISBN, page 12:

All 40 example sentences with mechanical

Synonyms of mechanical

pasteup

Forms of mechanical

Adjective
comparative	more mechanical
superlative	most mechanical
Noun
plural	mechanicals

Origin of mechanical

From Middle English mechanical, mechanicalle, mechanycalle, equivalent to mechanic + -al.

Words formed from mechanical

Questions about mechanical

What does mechanical mean?: Mechanical means characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar.
What is mechanical in Hindi?: Mechanical in Hindi is यांत्रिक (yāntrik), अभियांत्रिक (abhiyāntrik). See Mechanical meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mechanical in a sentence?: In order to produce the posters, the advertising agency purchases photographs, composition and artwork and fabricates such property to produce layouts and mechanicals.
What part of speech is mechanical?: Mechanical can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce mechanical?: Mechanical is pronounced /məˈkænɪkəl/ (UK).

Words near mechanical in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mechanical (page history and authors); अभियांत्रिक (Hindi) (page history and authors); mechanical (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); यांत्रिक (Marathi) (page history and authors); যান্ত্রিক (Bengali) (page history and authors); mechanical (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); mechanical (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mechanical.ogg.

Cite this entry: “mechanical.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mechanical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.