watchwork
8.9
Small moving parts inside a watch or other precise machine
- noun
:
mecanismo
- The watchmaker carefully examined the intricate watchwork to ensure it functioned perfectly.
Examples
-
He drew a soap house overtaken by a colony of spiders spinning webs worthy of the finest watchwork.
Fiction book (1992) -
Silk for watchworks.
Fiction book (1992) -
After years of designing watchwork, he created a timepiece that was both beautiful and precise.
-
Understanding the watchwork of the antique clock required a keen eye and skilled hands.
Synonyms
clockwork
vswatchwork
45
4.5
A set of small gears and a coiled spring that makes clocks or watches run
is broader, meaning any internal mechanism not only gear and spring types
8
6.4
The parts inside a watch that make it run
is broader and also refers to any intricate precisely functioning system
8.1
Small moving parts inside a watch that make it work
is the same meaning but is used in singular form
How Intricate
Surface Forms
watchwork singular
watchworks plural
Morphology
Etymology
Watchwork comes from watch ('a small clock') and work ('the parts doing a job'), so imagine tiny gears and hands moving together like a small, exact machine. So watchwork means the inner mechanism of a watch or any system that runs with the same precise timing.