frequently_asked_questions_files/Oxford Thesaurus.pdf

meat n. 1 flesh; food, nourishment, sustenance, viands, victuals,
nutriment, provisions, provender, comestibles, edibles,
eatables, Colloq eats, chow, grub: She's turned vegetarian and
won't touch meat in any form. 2 pith, core, heart, marrow,
kernel, vital part, essence, gist, substance, basics,
essentials, crux: The sub-plot seems to swamp the real meat of
the play.
mechanical
adj. 1 automatic, automated, machine-driven; machine-made:
Early mechanical toys are sometimes quite intricate. This is a
mechanical, not a hand-crafted device. 2 automatic, reflex,
involuntary, instinctive, routine, habitual, unconscious,
perfunctory, machine-like, robot-like: Good manners ought to be
mechanical. Blinking is a mechanical reaction to bright light. 3
impersonal, distant, cold, matter-of-fact, unfeeling,
insensible, ritualistic, lifeless, spiritless, dead, inanimate,
unanimated, unemotional, unartistic, mechanistic, colourless,
uninspired, business-like: The girl at the check-out gave us a
mechanical smile.
mechanism n. 1 device, appliance, contrivance, apparatus, instrument,
machine: This mechanism will detonate the bomb at the right
moment. 2 machinery, workings, works, structure, system,
organization, arrangement: Astrophysicists can offer only an
imperfect account of the mechanism of the universe. 3 way,
means, method, procedure, approach, technique, medium, process,
agency: We shall use every mechanism at our disposal to have
the case heard by a different judge. 4 materialism,
mechanicalism, physicalism, logical positivism, identity theory,
monism: His notions of mechanism reject the idea of
free-thinking individualism.
meddle v. interfere, intrude, butt in, pry, intervene, interlope,
tamper, snoop, Rare intermeddle, Colloq stick or poke one's nose
in, have a or one's finger in the pie, kibitz: Why are you
always meddling in things that don't concern you?
mediator n. arbitrator, arbiter, referee, umpire, judge, negotiator,
intermediary, go-between, middleman, moderator, liaison,
intercessor, interceder, conciliator, appeaser, peacemaker: To
avoid a lawsuit, they agreed to allow a mediator to settle their
differences.