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A mechanical contrivance for awaking persons from sleep, or rousing their attention; an alarum. Alarm bell, a bell that gives notice on danger. -- Alarm clock or watch, a clock or watch which can be so set as to ring or strike loudly at a prearranged hour, to wake from sleep, or excite attention. -- Alarm gauge, a co…

A person of consideration or standing. [Colloq.] All the men belonged exclusively to the mechanical and shopkeeping classes, and there was not a single banker or anybody in the list. Lond. Sat. Rev.

ensils, for a given duty, experimental or operative; any complex instrument or appliance, mechanical or chemical, for a specific action or operation; machinery; mechanism.

ed or used as a means to an end; an apparatus or device; as, to use various appliances; a mechanical appliance; a machine with its appliances.

One who is bound by indentures or by legal agreement to serve a mechanic, or other person, for a certain time, with a view to learn the art, or trade, in which his master is bound to instruct him.

A man who wears an apron; a laboring man; a mechanic. [Obs.] Shak.

sting of a steel bow set in a shaft of wood, furnished with a string and a trigger, and a mechanical device for bending the bow. It served to throw arrows, darts, bullets, etc. [Written also arbalet and arblast.] Fosbroke.

To bind by articles of covenant or stipulation; as, to article an apprentice to a mechanic.

An artistic worker; a mechanic or manufacturer; one whose occupation requires skill or knowledge of a particular kind, as a silversmith.

One trained to manual dexterity in some mechanic art or trade; and handicraftsman; a mechanic. This is willingly submitted to by the artisan, who can . . . compensate his additional toil and fatigue. Hume.

One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. [Obs.] How to build ships, and dreadful ordnance cast, Instruct the articles and reward their. Waller.

Of or pertaining to atoms; relating to atomism. [R.] It is the object of the mechanical atomistic philosophy to confound synthesis with synartesis. Coleridge.

To make thin or slender, as by mechanical or chemical action upon inanimate objects, or by the effects of starvation, disease, etc., upon living bodies.

Not voluntary; not depending on the will; mechanical; as, automatic movements or functions. Unconscious or automatic reasoning. H. Spenser. Automatic arts, such economic arts or manufacture as are carried on by self-acting machinery. Ure.

The state or quality of being automatic; the power of self- moving; automatic, mechanical, or involuntary action. (Metaph.) A theory as to the activity of matter.

, axial fiber, and cylinder axis. -- Axis in peritrochio, the wheel and axle, one of the mechanical powers. -- Axis of a curve (Geom.), a straight line which bisects a system of parallel chords of a curve; called a principal axis, when cutting them at right angles, in which case it divides the curve into two symmetri…

of the mercurial column changes the indication of the tube. With the aid of electrical or mechanical devices adapted to it, it is used for the automatic regulation of the temperature of rooms warmed artificially, and as a fire alarm. -- Balance of torsion. See Torsion Balance. -- Balance of trade (Pol. Econ.), an equ…

, so as to admit of motion in every direction within certain limits. -- Ball bearings, a mechanical device for lessening the friction of axle bearings by means of small loose metal balls. -- Ball cartridge, a cartridge containing a ball, as distinguished from a blank cartridge, containing only powder. -- Ball cock,…

In mechanics an apparatus on the principle of the seesaw, in which one end rises as the other falls. Bascule bridge, a counterpoise or balanced drawbridge, which is opened by sinking the counterpoise and thus lifting the footway into the air.

A long table at which mechanics and other work; as, a carpenter's bench.