engine
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed 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
NounEdit
engine (plural engines)
- A large construction used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult etc. [from 14th c.]
- (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], “Epistle I”, in An Essay on Man. Address’d to a Friend, new edition, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, at the Three Flower-de-luces, behind the Chapter-house, S. Paul's, OCLC 228762650; republished as An Essay on Man. By Alexander Pope, Esq. A New Edition. To which is Prefixed a Critical Essay, by J[ohn] Aikin, M.D., London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell), Strand, 1796, OCLC 1008157997, stanza IX, lines 259–262, page 55:
- 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.]
- 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 Queene, II.i:
- Therefore this craftie engine he did frame, / Against his praise to stirre vp enmitye [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:
- (obsolete) Natural talent; genius. [14th-17th c.]
- Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; an agent.
- Bunyan
- You see the ways the fisherman doth take / To catch the fish; what engines doth he make?
- Shakespeare
- Their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust.
- Bunyan
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from engine
Related termsEdit
Terms etymologically related to engine
TranslationsEdit
mechanical device
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locomotive — see locomotive
influential group
brain or heart
computer program
- 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.
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.
- (Can we date this quote?) T. Adams.
- to engine and batter our walls
- (Can we date this quote?) T. Adams.
- (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?)
Further readingEdit
- engine in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- engine in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911