Definition of machination:

part of speech: noun

A plot or scheme formed for some evil purpose; an artful design.

Usage examples:

• With the credulity that often attended his art, he attributed many of his disappointments to the machination of the malignant spirits that beset the paths of the alchymist and torment him in his solitary labours. Washington Irving in "Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists".