Dem"i*urge (?), n. [Gr. dhmioyrgo`s a worker for the people, a workman, especially the maker of the world, the Creator; dh`mios belonging to the people (fr. dh^mos the people) + 'e`rgon a work.] 1. (Gr. Antiq.) The chief magistrate in some of the Greek states.

2. God, as the Maker of the world.

3. According to the Gnostics, an agent or one employed by the Supreme Being to create the material universe and man.

• usually capitalized a in Platonism: the subordinate god who fashions the sensible world in the light of eternal ideas b in some Gnostic systems: an inferior not absolutely intelligent deity who is the creator of the material world and is frequently identified with the creator God of the Old Testament
  
• something (as an institution, idea, or individual) conceived as an autonomous creative force or decisive power
       that too was a gain in spiritual balance, provided the machine was not conceived as a demiurge that ruled all other human needs-- Lewis Mumford