See Also: gas engine(medicine)
engine(2)(dictionary)
engine(1)(dictionary)
Engine(medicine)
engine(encyclopedia)
jet engine(encyclopedia)
engine(dictionary)
jet engine(dictionary)
rotary engine(encyclopedia)
Steam engine(medicine)

engine(1) (iou)



engine noun. . ME.
[Old & mod. French engin from Latin ingenium natural quality, talents, clever device, formed as IN-2 + gen- base of gignere beget.]
Natural talent, wit; genius. obsolete exc. Scot. ME.
Sir W. Scott A man of quick ingine and deep wisdom.
b. A person's disposition. Chiefly Scot. M16-E17.
Ingenuity; cunning. ME-M17.
An instance or product of ingenuity or cunning; an artifice, a plot; a snare. ME-L18.
An instrument; a tool. arch. ME.
H. Power Our modern Engine the Microscope.
b. Orig., any offensive weapon. Later, a large weapon with some form of mechanism. Now arch. & Hist. ME.
M. Innes A sling would..be an engine to reckon with on bare ground. fig.: B. Franklin The stage and the press..became battering engines against religion.
c. An instrument of torture, esp. the rack. LME-L17.
d. A contrivance for catching game, fish, etc. L15.
The universe, or a particular division of the world, as a working entity. E-M16.
a. A person regarded as another's instrument or agent, a tool. M16-M18.
b. A thing that is an agent or instrument (of an end or achievement). L16.
Times We have been the engines of world growth.
A contrivance consisting of a number of moving parts that work together to produce a desired physical effect. Now rare exc. as below & as the 2nd elem. of comb. M17.
beer-engine: see BEER noun1.
Adam Smith Engines for knitting gloves or stockings. Physics Bulletin A small ruling engine capable of ruling plane or concave gratings..with a pitch of 300 lines/mm.
A fire engine. arch. M17.
A stationary steam engine. E19.
atmospheric engine: see ATMOSPHERIC adjective 1.
A railway locomotive. M19.
A machine for producing energy of motion from some other form of energy, esp. heat that the machine itself generates. M19.
car engine, oil engine, petrol engine, rocket engine, Wankel engine, etc.
Comb.: engine-driver spec. a train driver; engineman a person who works on or operates an engine; engine-room a room containing engines, esp. a ship's engines; engine-turning the engraving of symmetrical patterns on metals by machine.