engine
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
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”), from ingenitum, past participle of ingignō (“to instil by birth, implant, produce in”). Compare gin, ingenious.
PronunciationEdit
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈɛnd͡ʒɪn/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈend͡ʒɪn/, /ˈend͡ʒən/
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈend͡ʒɘn/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛndʒɪn, -endʒɪn, -endʒən
- Hyphenation: en‧gine
NounEdit
engine (plural engines)
- A large construction used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult etc. [from 14th c.]
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IV, scene i:
- Their warlike Engins and munition
Exceed the forces of their martial men.
- (now archaic) A tool; a utensil or implement. [from 14th c.]
- 1714, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:
- 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 [...].
- 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019, lines 248–251, page 15:
- 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?
- A complex mechanical device which converts energy into useful motion or physical effects. [from 16th c.]
- A person or group of people which influence a larger group; a driving force. [from 16th c.]
- 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 1, page 75:
- 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.
- The part of a car or other vehicle which provides the force for motion, now especially one powered by internal combustion. [from 19th c.]
- A self-powered vehicle, especially a locomotive, used for pulling cars along a track. [from 19th c.]
- (computing) A software or hardware system responsible for a specific technical task (usually with qualifying word). [from 20th c.]
- a graphics engine
- a physics engine
- (obsolete) Ingenuity; cunning, trickery, guile. [13th-17th c.]
- (obsolete) The result of cunning; something ingenious, a contrivance; (in negative senses) a plot, a scheme. [13th-18th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book II, canto i, page 193:
- Therefore this craftie engine he did frame, / Againſt his praiſe to ſtirre vp enmitye [...].
- (obsolete) Natural talent; genius. [14th-17th c.]
- Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; an agent.
- c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene v], page 243, column 1:
- [...] their promiſes, entiſements, oathes, tokens, and all theſe engines of luſt [...].
- 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, OCLC 5190338:
- You ſee the ways the Fiſher-man doth take / To catch the Fiſh; what Engins doth he make?
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
- aero engine
- aircraft engine
- banking engine
- boxer engine
- crate engine
- diesel engine
- engine bay
- engine compartment
- engine driver
- engineer
- engine hour
- engine house
- engine lathe
- engine room
- engine shed
- engine trouble
- engine-turned
- fire engine
- four-stroke engine
- game engine
- graphics engine
- Hero engine
- in-line engine
- internal combustion engine
- jet engine
- marine engine
- mill engine
- one engine in steam
- petrol engine
- physics engine
- re-engine, reengine (verbs)
- search engine
- shunting engine
- software engine
- stationary engine
- steam engine
- straight engine
- tank engine
- tender engine
- twin-engine
- two-stroke engine
Related termsEdit
Terms etymologically related to engine
TranslationsEdit
mechanical device
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locomotive — see locomotive
influential group
software or hardware system responsible for a specific technical task
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
DescendantsEdit
- → Afrikaans: enjin
- → Bashkir: ইঞ্জিন (ইঞ্জিন)
- → Hindi: इंजन (iñjan)
- → Japanese: エンジン
- → Malay: enjin
- Indonesian: enjin
- → Scottish Gaelic: einnsean
- → Swedish: injini
- → Shanghainese: 引擎 (in¹-jin⁶)
- → Chinese: 引擎 (yǐnqíng)
VerbEdit
engine (third-person singular simple present engines, present participle engining, simple past and past participle engined)
- (transitive, dated) To equip with an engine; said especially of steam vessels.
- Vessels are often built by one firm and engined by another.
- (transitive, obsolete) To assault with an engine.
- 1629, Thomas Adams, Plain-Dealing
- to engine and batter our walls
- 1629, Thomas Adams, Plain-Dealing
- (transitive, obsolete) To contrive; to put into action.
- (transitive, obsolete) To rack; to torture.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)
- Quoted in 1977, Virginia Brown (ed.), Mediaeval Studies (volume XXXIX), Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada
- In the year 1433 a merchant complained to Commons that the lord of the port city of Gildo in Brittany had imprisoned a servant of his ‘and engined him so that he was in point of death’ (Rot. pari. 4.475).
Further readingEdit
- “engine” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “engine” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
AnagramsEdit
ChineseEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From clipping of English engineering.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
engine
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) engineering industry; engineer
- (Hong Kong Cantonese, college slang) engineering
Alternative formsEdit
See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
engine
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) engine (mechanical device; part of a vehicle; computing):