Engine Meaning
/ˈɛnd͡ʒɪn/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA large construction used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult etc.
nounA tool; a utensil or implement.
Sentence Examples
Tom started the engine.
The Wright brothers succeeded in flying an airplane driven by an engine.
The aircraft is powered by a jet engine.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The mechanic said the old car's ____ needs to be replaced soon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The mechanic had to repair the ____ of the old red truck.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English engyn, 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”), related to ingignō (“to instil by birth, implant, produce in”). Compare gin, ingenious, engineer.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Their warlike Engins and munition
Exceed the forces of their martial men."
— c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i:
"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 [...]."
— 1714, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:
"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?"
— 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 15, lines 248–251:
"In France, the parliament soon became a mere engine in the hands of a few high-born and ambitious men, who had nothing in common with its interests, which were those of the people."
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 75:
"Therefore this craftie engine he did frame, / Againſt his praiſe to ſtirre vp enmitye [...]."
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 193:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The mechanic said the old car's ____ needs to be replaced soon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The mechanic had to repair the ____ of the old red truck.