Machine permit not dear oddly (7)
I believe the answer is:
printer
'machine' is the definition.
(printer is a kind of machine)
'permit not dear oddly' is the wordplay.
'oddly' indicates alternate letters.
'permit'+'not'+'dear'='permitnotdear'
The alternating letters of 'permitnotdear' are 'PRINTER'.
(Other definitions for printer that I've seen before include "Compositor" , "Computer attachment to produce paper documents" , "Computer peripheral" , "Producer of reading material" , "See 13 Down" .)