engine

A large construction used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult etc.

Noun

  1. A large construction used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult etc.
    • Their warlike Engins and munition Exceed the forces of their martial men. - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R....
  2. A tool; a utensil or implement.
    • Flattery must be the most powerful Argument that cou'd be used to Human Creatures. Making use of this bewitching Engine, they extoll'd the Excellency of our Nature above other Animals [...]. - 1714, Bernard Mandeville,...
    • What if the Foot, ordain'd the duſt to tread, / Or Hand, to toil, aſpir'd to be the Head? / What if the Head, the Eye, or Ear repin'd / To ſerve mere Engines to the ruling Mind? - 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on...
  3. A complex mechanical device which converts energy into useful motion or physical effects.

    Synonyms: drive motor

  4. A person or group of people which influence a larger group; a driving force.
    • In France, the parliament soon became a mere engine in the hands of a few high-born and ambitious men, who had nothing in common with its interests, which were those of the people. - 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth]...
  5. The part of a car or other vehicle which provides the force for motion, now especially one powered by internal combustion.
  6. A self-powered vehicle used for moving cars along a track.

    1. (usually) A locomotive.

  7. A software or hardware system responsible for a specific technical task (usually with qualifying word).
    • a graphics engine
    • a physics engine
  8. Ingenuity; cunning, trickery, guile.
  9. The result of cunning; something ingenious, a contrivance; (in negative senses) a plot, a scheme.
    • Therefore this craftie engine he did frame, / Againſt his praiſe to ſtirre vp enmitye [...]. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC,...
  10. Natural talent; genius.
  11. Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; an agent.
    • [...] their promiſes, entiſements, oathes, tokens, and all theſe engines of luſt [...]. - c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories,...
    • You ſee the ways the Fiſher-man doth take / To catch the Fiſh; what Engins doth he make? - 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come:...

Origin

From Middle English engyn, from Anglo-Norman engine, Old French engin (“skill, cleverness, war machine”), from Latin ingenium (“innate or natural quality, nature, genius, a genius, an invention, (in Late Latin) a war-engine, battering-ram”), related to ingignō (“to instil by birth, implant, produce in”). Compare gin, ingenious, engineer.

Forms

engines

Synonyms

motor locomotive

Hyponyms

aero engine aircraft engine air engine analytical engine answer engine atmospheric engine banking engine barring engine beam engine beer engine boxer engine chaff engine chemical engine chess engine combustion engine compound engine corncob engine Cornish engine crate engine database engine dental engine diesel engine difference engine dividing engine

Related

engineer genius ingeniosity ingenious

Derived

bank engine bullgine Carnot engine Carnot heat engine crane engine duplex pumping engine engine bay engine block engine braking engine cleaner engine compartment engine diaper engine displacement engine driver engineer engine generator engine-generator engine hour engine house engine knock engine lathe engineless enginelike engineman

Verb

  1. To equip with an engine; said especially of steam vessels.
    • Vessels are often built by one firm and engined by another.
  2. To assault with an engine.
    • to engine and batter our walls - 1629, Thomas Adams, Plain-Dealing:
  3. To contrive; to put into action.

Forms

engines engining engined