ETYM French engin skill, machine, engine, Latin ingenium natural capacity, invention; in in + the root of gignere to produce. Related to Genius, Ingenious, Gin a snare.
1. Converts thermal energy to mechanical work.
2. Something used to achieve a purpose.
Device for converting stored energy into useful work or movement. Most engines use a fuel as their energy store. The fuel is burned to produce heat energy—hence the name “heat engine”—which is then converted into movement. Heat engines can be classified according to the fuel they use (gasoline engine or diesel engine), or according to whether the fuel is burned inside (internal combustion engine) or outside (steam engine) the engine, or according to whether they produce a reciprocating or rotary motion (turbine or Wankel engine).
locomotive · locomotive engine · railway locomotive
A processor or portion of a program that determines how the program manages and manipulates data. The term engine is most often used in relation to a specific use; for example, a database engine contains the tools for manipulating a database, and a Web search engine has the ability to search World Wide Web indexes for matches to one or more key words entered by the user. Compare back-end processor, front-end processor.
To equip with engines.