Result from Foreign Dictionaries (4 entries found)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Engine \En"gine\ ([e^]n"j[i^]n), n. [F. engin skill, machine, engine, L. ingenium natural capacity, invention; in in + the root of gignere to produce. See {Genius}, and cf. {Ingenious}, {Gin} a snare.] 1. Note: (Pronounced, in this sense, [e^]n*j[=e]n".) Natural capacity; ability; skill. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] 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] Note: 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] From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Engine \En"gine\, v. t. 1. To assault with an engine. [Obs.] [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, ?????.) To rack; to torture. [Obs.] --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: engine n 1: motor that converts thermal energy to mechanical work 2: something used to achieve a purpose; "an engine of change" 3: a wheeled vehicle consisting of a self-propelled engine that is used to draw trains along railway tracks [syn: {locomotive}, {engine}, {locomotive engine}, {railway locomotive}] 4: an instrument or machine that is used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult, artillery piece, etc.; "medieval engines of war" From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]: engine n. 1. A piece of hardware that encapsulates some function but can't be used without some kind of {front end}. Today we have, especially, print engine: the guts of a laser printer. 2. An analogous piece of software; notionally, one that does a lot of noisy crunching, such as a database engine. The hacker senses of engine are actually close to its original, pre-Industrial-Revolution sense of a skill, clever device, or instrument (the word is cognate to ?ingenuity?). This sense had not been completely eclipsed by the modern connotation of power-transducing machinery in Charles Babbage's time, which explains why he named the stored-program computer that he designed in 1844 the Analytical Engine.