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Glite Dictionary
🦴 Internal organs ⚙️ Inner parts
entrail

entrail

1 7.7
The internal parts of a machine or system that make it work
  • noun
  • /ˈɛntrəl/
translation icon : interior
  • He delved into the entrails of the city's transportation infrastructure to identify improvement areas.
  • wires like entrails

Examples

  • Understanding the entrails of the software helps programmers diagnose issues more quickly.

  • The setting of LIBOR has an aspect of chicken entrails to it.

    Blog text (21)

  • Huddled on the Number 1 train, she rattled through the entrails of Manhattan to the end of the line: South Ferry.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Vu was showing him the entrails of a Typhoon when Dat walked by.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The most technically muscular forecaster in Washington shares something with a Roman examiner of entrails.

    Academic text (1992)

  • He preferred these assignments to transcribing the accusations of one politician against another, or reading the entrails of press releases.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • He didn't know about the secret hollows in the old building's entrails that funneled his voice past their rooms straight to ours.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The engineer explained the complex entrails of the computer system to the new technician.

Synonyms

works
vsentrail
  • Specialized
15 4.8

The moving parts inside a machine that make it run

is used figuratively for inner parts of a system rather than literal device parts
internal
vsentrail
9 4.6

The inner parts of a machine or device

is used figuratively to mean inner parts of a system not physical components
workings
vsentrail
1 3.9

The parts inside a machine or system that make it run

is used figuratively to mean inner parts of a system not literal machine parts

How Internal

entrail
1 7.7
component
447 3.4

Surface Forms

entrail singular
entrails plural

Etymology

Entrail comes from the Old French word entrailles, which meant 'inward parts' and is like the English word intestine. That's why we use entrails for the inner parts of a machine too — it pictures the hidden 'guts' that make something work.