2. the application of engineeering principles to solve problems in medicine, such as the design of artificial limbs or organs; -- called also biomedical engineering. [ PJC ]

3. the branch of engineering dealing with the application of biological processes to the solution of practical problems, such as the manufacture of products by fermentation, the production and use of enzymes for various purposes, the use of microorganisms in environmental cleanup, etc.; -- called also biotechnology. [ PJC ]

2. disposed to or engaged in defiance of established authority.
Syn. -- insubordinate, resistant, resistive. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

A man hath sapiences three,
Memory, engine, and intellect also. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; a machine; an agent. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

You see the ways the fisherman doth take
To catch the fish; what engines doth he make? Bunyan. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Any instrument by which any effect is produced; especially, an instrument or machine of war or torture. “Terrible engines of death.” Sir W. Raleigh. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mach.) A compound machine by which any physical power is applied to produce a given physical effect. [ 1913 Webster ]

Engine driver, one who manages an engine; specifically, the engineer of a locomotive. --
Engine lathe. (Mach.) See under Lathe. --
Engine tool, a machine tool. J. Whitworth. --
Engine turning (Fine Arts), a method of ornamentation by means of a rose engine. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

To engine and batter our walls. T. Adams. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To equip with an engine; -- said especially of steam vessels; as, vessels are often built by one firm and engined by another. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Pronounced, in this sense, &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_;.) To rack; to torture. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who manages as engine, particularly a steam engine; an engine driver. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. One who carries through an enterprise by skillful or artful contrivance; an efficient manager. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Civil engineer, a person skilled in the science of civil engineering. --
Military engineer, one who executes engineering works of a military nature. See under Engineering. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To use contrivance and effort for; to guide the course of; to manage; as, to engineer a bill through Congress. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In a comprehensive sense, engineering includes architecture as a mechanical art, in distinction from architecture as a fine art. It was formerly divided into military engineering, which is the art of designing and constructing offensive and defensive works, and civil engineering, in a broad sense, as relating to other kinds of public works, machinery, etc. --
Civil engineering, in modern usage, is strictly the art of planning, laying out, and constructing fixed public works, such as railroads, highways, canals, aqueducts, water works, bridges, lighthouses, docks, embankments, breakwaters, dams, tunnels, etc. --
Mechanical engineering relates to machinery, such as steam engines, machine tools, mill work, etc. --
Mining engineering deals with the excavation and working of mines, and the extraction of metals from their ores, etc. Engineering is further divided into steam engineering, gas engineering, agricultural engineering, topographical engineering, electrical engineering, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Engines, in general; instruments of war. [ 1913 Webster ]

Training his devilish enginery. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Any device or contrivance; machinery; structure or arrangement. Shenstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

That one act gives, like an enginous wheel,
Motion to all. Decker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Contrived with care; ingenious. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The mark of all enginous drifts. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In its most common forms its essential parts are a piston, a cylinder, and a valve gear. The piston works in the cylinder, to which steam is admitted by the action of the valve gear, and communicates motion to the machinery to be actuated. Steam engines are thus classified: 1. According to the way the steam is used or applied, as condensing, noncondensing, compound, double-acting, single-acting, triple-expansion, etc. 2. According to the motion of the piston, as reciprocating, rotary, etc. 3. According to the motion imparted by the engine, as rotative and nonrotative. 4. According to the arrangement of the engine, as stationary, portable, and semiportable engines, horizontal and vertical engines, beam engine, oscillating engine, direct-acting and back-acting engines, etc. 5. According to their uses, as portable, marine, locomotive, pumping, blowing, winding, and stationary engines, the latter term referring to factory engines, etc., and not technically to pumping or blowing engines. Locomotive and portable engines are usually high-pressure, noncondensing, rotative, and direct-acting. Marine engines are high or low pressure, rotative, and generally condensing, double-acting, and compound. Paddle engines are generally beam, side-lever, oscillating, or direct-acting. Screw engines are generally direct-acting, back-acting, or oscillating. Stationary engines belong to various classes, but are generally rotative. A horizontal or inclined stationary steam engine is called a left-hand or a right-hand engine when the crank shaft and driving pulley are on the left-hand side, or the right-hand side, respectively, of the engine, to a person looking at them from the cylinder, and is said to run forward or backward when the crank traverses the upward half, or lower half, respectively, of its path, while the piston rod makes its stroke outward from the cylinder. A marine engine, or the engine of a locomotive, is said to run forward when its motion is such as would propel the vessel or the locomotive forward. Steam engines are further classified as double-cylinder, disk, semicylinder, trunk engines, etc. Machines, such as cranes, hammers, etc., of which the steam engine forms a part, are called steam cranes, steam hammers, etc. See Illustration in Appendix. [ 1913 Webster ]

Back-acting steam engine, or
Back-action steam engine, a steam engine in which the motion is transmitted backward from the crosshead to a crank which is between the crosshead and the cylinder, or beyond the cylinder. --
Portable steam engine, a steam engine combined with, and attached to, a boiler which is mounted on wheels so as to admit of easy transportation; -- used for driving machinery in the field, as thrashing machines, draining pumps, etc. --
Semiportable steam engine, a steam engine combined with, and attached to, a steam boiler, but not mounted on wheels. [ 1913 Webster ]