*engine*

n. 1. biological science applied to the study the relation between workers and their environments.
Syn. -- ergonomics. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

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 ]

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

. (Railroads) A switching engine the running gear and driving gear of which are on a bogie, or truck. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (a) In the United States army, the a corps of officers and enlisted men consisting of one band and three battalions of engineers commanded by a brigadier general, whose title is Chief of Engineers. It has charge of the construction of fortifications for land and seacoast defense, the improvement of rivers and harbors, the construction of lighthouses, etc., and, in time of war, supervises the engineering operations of the armies in the field. (b) In the United States navy, a corps made up of the engineers, which was amalgamated with the line by act of March 3, 1899. It consisted of assistant and passed assistant engineers, ranking with ensigns and lieutenants, chief engineers, ranking from lieutenant to captain, and engineer in chief, ranking with commodore and having charge of the Bureau of Steam Engineering. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

{ or . [ After Dr. Rudolf Diesel, of Munich, the inventor. ] A type of internal-combustion engine in which the air drawn in by the suction stroke is so highly compressed that the heat generated ignites the fuel (usually a heavy oil), the fuel being automatically sprayed into the cylinder under pressure. The Diesel engine has a very high thermal efficiency. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

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. (Pronounced, in this sense, ) 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 ]

☞ 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 ]

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, &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_;.) To rack; to torture. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. enginer: cf. OF. engignier, F. ingénieur. See Engine, n. ] 1. A person skilled in the principles and practice of any branch of engineering; as, a civil engineer; an electronic engineer; a chemical engineer. See under Engineering, n. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

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 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Engineered p. pr. & vb. n. Engineering. ] 1. To lay out or construct, as an engineer; to perform the work of an engineer on; as, to engineer a road. J. Hamilton. [ 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 ]

n. Originally, the art of managing engines; in its modern and extended sense, the art and science by which the properties of matter are made useful to man, whether in structures, machines, chemical substances, or living organisms; the occupation and work of an engineer. In the modern sense, the application of mathematics or systematic knowledge beyond the routine skills of practise, for the design of any complex system which performs useful functions, may be considered as engineering, including such abstract tasks as designing software (software engineering). [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

☞ 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 ]

n.; pl. Enginemen A man who manages, or waits on, an engine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Engineer. ] A contriver; an inventor; a contriver of engines. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act or art of managing engines, or artillery. Milton. [ 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 ]

a. Sized by a machine, and not while in the pulp; -- said of paper. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Elec.) A generator having its revolving part carried on the shaft of the driving engine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Mach.) A kind of internal-combustion engine (which see) using fixed gas; also, broadly, any internal-combustion engine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

{ or }. (Mach.) A kind of internal-combustion engine; -- in British countries called usually petrol engine. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. (Mach.) Designating, or pertaining to, any engine (called an ) in which the heat or pressure energy necessary to produce motion is developed in the engine cylinder, as by the explosion of a gas, and not in a separate chamber, as in a steam-engine boiler. The gas used may be a fixed gas, or one derived from alcohol, ether, gasoline (petrol), naphtha, oil (petroleum), etc. There are three main classes: (1) gas engines proper, using fixed gases, as coal, blast-furnace, or producer gas; (2) engines using the vapor of a volatile fluid, as the typical gasoline (petrol) engine; (3) oil engines, using either an atomized spray or the vapor (produced by heat) of a comparatively heavy oil, as petroleum or kerosene. In all of these the gas is mixed with a definite amount of air, the charge is composed in the cylinder and is then exploded either by a flame of gas (flame ignition -- now little used), by a hot tube (tube ignition) or the like, by an electric spark (electric ignition, the usual method is gasoline engines, or by the heat of compression, as in the Diesel engine. Gas and oil engines are chiefly of the stationary type. Gasoline engines are largely used for automobile vehicles, boats, etc. Most internal-combustion engines use the Otto (four-stroke) cycle, though many use the two-stroke cycle. They are almost universally trunk engines and single-acting. Because of the intense heat produced by the frequent explosions, the cylinders must be cooled by a water jacket (water-cooled) or by air currents (air cooled) to give the maximum thermodynamic efficiency and to avoid excessive friction or seizing. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. The application of computerized data and text manipulation to manage and interpret large bodies of knowledge, or find useful information in large bodies of data. The study of methods for knowledge engineering is generally considered as a branch of artificial intelligence. [ PJC ]

n. [ OF. malengin; L. malus bad, evil + ingenium natural capacity. See Engine. ] Evil machination; guile; deceit. [ Obs. ] Gower. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The branch of engineering concerned with the design and construction and operation of nuclear reactors. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

. An engine using the Otto cycle. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Mach.) An engine, usually an internal-combustion engine of a certain type (the
radial type) having several cylinders arranged radially like the spokes of a complete wheel. The
semiradial engine has radiating cylinders on only one side of the crank shaft. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Mach.) A semiradial engine. See Radial engine, above. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Mach.) See Radial engine, above. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

An engine moved by steam. [ 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 ]

. A steam engine having two or more steam cylinders in line, with a common piston rod. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. An engine having a trunk piston, as most internal combustion engines. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]