Enigma machine

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːn

Noun

Enigma machine (plural Enigma machines)

1. (historical) A small portable electro-mechanical rotor machine used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages, made famous by Germany in WWII.
2. (figurative) Something which decrypts or makes understandable something enigmatic.
   • 2004, New Yorker, 9 - 16 August 2004, page 37:

     No one needed an Enigma machine to figure out why Jimmy Carter was recalling his days aboard a nuclear submarine.