Examples:

• Only a cog in the machine, and it broke.
• In theory, the most important cog in the machine is the councillor.
• Parliament is once again acting as a cog in the machine of urgent demands from the college in Brussels.
• On the other hand, increasing globalization and impersonalization of daily life is strongly at work in their lives. How to contribute to the whole without becoming a cog in the machine is their quest.