Definition

1. Noun:
   • A crafty, intricate, and often secret plot or scheme, typically designed to achieve a harmful or sinister purpose through deception and manipulation.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The political machination was designed to undermine the election.
  • She suspected a machination behind his sudden change of heart.
  • The company's downfall was the result of financial machinations by its rivals.

Advanced Usage

• "Machinations of...": Used to describe the complex, scheming actions of a person or group.
  • The novel explores the dark machinations of the royal court.
• "To be caught in/up in the machinations of...": To become involved in or affected by such schemes.
  • He was an innocent pawn caught in their machinations.

Variants and Related Words

• Machinate (verb): To engage in plotting or scheming.
  • The conspirators continued to machinate in secret.
• Machinator (noun): A person who engages in machinations; a schemer.

Synonyms

• Scheme: A systematic plan, often for a deceitful or illicit purpose.
• Plot: A secret plan made to achieve a particular, often unlawful, goal.
• Intrigue: The secret planning of something illicit or detrimental.
• Conspiracy: A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.

Related Phrases

• Web of machinations: A complex, interconnected series of schemes.
  • He was trapped in a web of political machinations.
• Machinations and plots: Often used together to emphasize scheming behavior.
  • The history of the empire is full of tales of machinations and plots.

Related Idioms

• To hatch a machination: To devise or create a secret, cunning plan.
  • The villains spent months hatching their machination.

Noun

1. a crafty and involved plot to achieve your (usually sinister) ends