deus ex machinan.

1697 J. Sergeant Solid Philos. 136 Nor is it at all allowable in Philosophy, to bring in a Deus è Machiná at every turn, when our selves are at a loss to give a Reason for our Thesis.

1840 R. H. Barham Leech of Folkestone in Ingoldsby Legends 1st Ser. 135 This was, however, no less a personage than the Deus ex machinâ,—the illustrious Aldrovando himself.

1857 A. Trollope Barchester Towers II. xv. 292 Doctor Gwynne was the Deus ex machina who was to come down upon the Barchester stage, and bring about deliverance from these terrible evils.

1874 Hotten's Slang Dict. (rev. ed.) 223 Mary Ann, the title of the dea ex machinâ evolved from trades-unionism at Sheffield.

1889 A. E. Haigh Attic Theatre iv. 190 The mêchanê was used under various circumstances; but the most ordinary occasion for its employment was to introduce the ‘deus ex machina’ at the end of a play, when affairs had reached such a complicated condition that only divine interference could put them right again.

1896 W. Caldwell Schopenhauer's Syst. ii. 62 If you assume in every brain a spirit like a sort of deus ex machinâ, you ought to concede a spirit to every stone.

1928 C. Dawson Age of Gods p. xiv The dominant fashion is to look to the racial factor as the deus ex machina of the human drama.

1937 M. Sharp Nutmeg Tree ix. 108 Her function at Les Sapins was that of a dea ex machina; and the make of her car would not bear examining.

1962 W. Nowottny Lang. Poets Use vi. 145 Fruitful Ambiguity, that popular deus ex machina of the contemporary critical scene.

1970 T. Hilton Pre-Raphaelites v. 133 The accepted interpretation, that he [sc. Ruskin] descended to the Brotherhood like some deus ex machina, ignores the real similarity of artistic purpose that bound him to the group.