Engine
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ˈɛn.(d)ʒɪn/
- US IPA: /ˈɛndʒən/
Origin
From Anglo-Norman engine, Old French engin ("skill, cleverness, war machine"), from Latin ingenium, from ingenitum, past participle of ingignere ("to instil by birth, implant, produce in"). Compare gin, ingenious.
Full definition of engine
Noun
engine
(plural engines)- (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 .... - (obsolete) Natural talent; genius. 14th-17th c.
- Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; an agent.
- BunyanYou see the ways the fisherman doth take
To catch the fish; what engines doth he make? - ShakespeareTheir promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust.
- 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 ....
- 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