engine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A machine that turns fuel or power into movement, used to drive vehicles and other machines.

   The car wouldn't start because the engine was broken.

2. 2
   noun

   A piece of software that performs a particular technical task.

   He improved the search engine to return faster results.

3. 3
   noun

   Something that drives growth or change forward.

   Small businesses are often the engine of the economy.

Common collocations

• diesel engine Adjective + noun
• powerful engine Adjective + noun
• start an engine Verb + noun
• stop an engine Verb + noun
• faulty engine Adjective + noun
• rev an engine Verb + noun

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.

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