engine meaning

• Noun: engine  enjun [N. Amer], enjin [Brit]
  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
     - locomotive, locomotive engine, railway locomotive [Brit, Cdn], loco, railroad locomotive [N. Amer] 
  4. An instrument or machine that is used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult, artillery piece, etc.
     "medieval engines of war"

  Derived forms: engines

  See also: engineer

  Type of: causal agency, causal agent, cause, instrument, motor, self-propelled vehicle

  Part of: railroad train [N. Amer], railway train [Brit, Cdn], train

  Encyclopedia: Engine

• 
  [Business]
  noun [C]

  SEARCH ENGINE

  1

  the part of a vehicle that produces power to make the vehicle move:

  a diesel/petrol engine

  an aircraft/car engine

  The new factory will produce up to 2 500 engines a day.

  2

  a thing that makes sth happen or has a very strong influence:

  He believes that China will become the engine of growth for Asia.

  3 (IT )

  the part of a computer program that is designed to keep performing a particular task:

  Each charge is processed through the payment engine.

  You can use the shopping engine to find the best prices on the net.

• 
  [Computer]
  <jargon> 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", or "search engine".
  
  The hackish 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".

• adiabatic engine:    [Mechanical engine ...
• aero-engine:     noun  A ...
• air engine:    [Mechanical engine ...

Examples

1. the engine puffed out of the station.
2. do not make the engine run fast when not in gear.
3. waves of heat danced above the engine hood.
4. engines will not run without lubricants.
5. one of the aircraft 's engines cut out.