ENGINE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Engine

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/ˈɛndʒən/ /ˈɪndʒən/ Listen

noun

Engine n.

1.

Natural capacity; ability; skill. (Obs.) "A man hath sapiences three, Memory, engine, and intellect also."

2.

Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; a machine; an agent. "You see the ways the fisherman doth take To catch the fish; what engines doth he make?" "Their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust."

3.

Any instrument by which any effect is produced; especially, an instrument or machine of war or torture. "Terrible engines of death."

4.

(Mach.) A compound machine by which any physical power is applied to produce a given physical effect.

Engine driver, one who manages an engine; specifically, the engineer of a locomotive.

Engine lathe. (Mach.) See under Lathe.

Engine tool, a machine tool.

Engine turning (Fine Arts), a method of ornamentation by means of a rose engine. Note: The term engine is more commonly applied to massive machines, or to those giving power, or which produce some difficult result. Engines, as motors, are distinguished according to the source of power, as steam engine, air engine, electro-magnetic engine; or the purpose on account of which the power is applied, as fire engine, pumping engine, locomotive engine; or some peculiarity of construction or operation, as single-acting or double-acting engine, high-pressure or low-pressure engine, condensing engine, etc.

verb

Engine v. t.

1.

To assault with an engine. (Obs.) "To engine and batter our walls."

2.

To equip with an engine; said especially of steam vessels; as, vessels are often built by one firm and engined by another.

3.

To rack; to torture. (Obs.)

See images of 'Engine'

Etymology of 'Engine'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Engine" Quotes from Famous Books

... at eight, was only a few seconds behind time. As the screech of the approaching engine rung out from the dark wood-land, Margaret and her father exchanged rapid glances. It would take Richard ten minutes to walk from the railway station to the house,—for of course he would come there directly after sending ...

— The Stillwater Tragedy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... and energy to deal with them. It might be that the defects in human government could only be remedied by employing the forces of government to cure them; but if you began to set going the administrative engine there was no saying where it might stop. Bentham held all government to be an evil, though he differed from the modern anarchist in holding it to be a necessary evil; yet he needed a strong scientific administration for the purpose of rooting out inveterate ...

— Studies in Literature and History • Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall

... the shores of Yarrow, Teviot, and Gala waters. I will read you once again, though you will remember it, his description of one of those pools which you are about sanitarily to draw off into your engine-boilers, and then I will tell you what I saw myself in ...

— On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2) - A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature • John Ruskin

... and whose organs are overworked, that they will tone and regulate the system, purify the blood and assist the different organs in performing their functions. The presence of sugar indicates that they can provide fuel for the body—the human engine—whether it be the romping child or the man whose day is filled with hard physical labor. So it follows that grapes are really a very valuable ...

— Armour's Monthly Cook Book, Volume 2, No. 12, October 1913 - A Monthly Magazine of Household Interest • Various

... this did "ostrich-farming" and feather-exporting become, as it still continues, one of the most important branches of commercial enterprise in the Cape Colony; but we cannot avoid the conclusion, that, as Watt gave the first impulse to the steam-engine when he sat and watched the boiling kettle, so Mrs Marais opened the door to a great colonial industry when she held that infant ostrich between her knees, and stuffed it with minced ...

— The Settler and the Savage • R.M. Ballantyne

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