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deus ex machina |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.09 sec. |
deus ex machinaStage device in Greek and Roman drama in which a god appeared in the sky by means of a crane (Greek, mechane) to resolve the plot of a play. Plays by Sophocles and particularly Euripides sometimes require the device. The term now denotes something that appears suddenly and unexpectedly and provides an artificial solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty. deus ex machina improbable agent introduced to solve a dilemma. [Western Drama: LLEI, I: 279] See : Miracle |
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For one thing, their telecarb never seems to work when it is most needed--a great plot device that keeps it from becoming an annoying deus ex machina. But there are other deus ex machinas in the world, even if you'll have to watch beyond tonight and endure more conspiracies and a little bit of inevitable narrative wheel-spinning over the next couple of episodes. As a result, the free market appears as a deus ex machina, a system whose social depredations occur without any human intervention. |
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