well-oiled machine
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]The figurative sense is an extension from the literal sense.
Noun
[edit]well-oiled machine (plural well-oiled machines)
- (idiomatic, figurative) Something that operates capably through the effective coordination of many parts.
- run like a well-oiled machine
- Our office runs like a well-oiled machine.
- Our office is a well-oiled machine.
- 2008, Zane, Succulent: Chocolate Flava II, page 2:
- Trevor was the firm's facilities manager and it was his job to make sure that their office ran like a well-oiled machine and that the partners, attorneys, and staff were comfortable.
- 2007, Jeanine Basinger, The Star Machine, page 13:
- A movie studio in the so-called golden era was a well-oiled machine with everything needed to make movies right in place on the studio lot.
- 2004, Carolyn Orange, 44 Smart Strategies for Avoiding Classroom Mistakes, page 16:
- Contrary to this dismal picture is the popular concept of the classroom that runs like a well-oiled machine, smoothly, flawlessly, functioning at full capacity, producing maximum output.
- 1850, The Knickerbocker; or, New-York monthly magazine, "Editor's Table", p. 573:
- The writer is never enthusiastic and rarely Imaginative. His lines flow with the smoothness of a well-oiled machine.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see well-oiled, machine.