Sekirov Dictionary

engineer

UK /ˌɛn(d)ʒɪˈnɪə/US /ˌɛnd͡ʒɪˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/

noun 11
verb 5
forms 3

noun11

•
a person with the training to plan, build and look after machines, systems, bridges or roads
- Macanopoietico, an inginer, an engine-maker. — 1598
•
A soldier engaged in designing or constructing military works for attack or defence, or other engineering works.
- For tis the sport to haue the enginer / Hoist with his ovvne petar, an't shall goe hard / But I vvill delue one yard belovve their mines, / And blovve them at the Moone: […] — 1599
A person professionally engaged in the technical design and construction of large-scale private and public works such as bridges, buildings, harbours, railways, roads, etc.; a civil engineer.
A person trained to operate an engine.
(US) A person who drives or operates a fire engine (firefighting apparatus).
(US) A person who drives or operates a locomotive; a train driver.
•
(historical) A person who operates a steam engine; specifically (nautical), a person employed to operate the steam engine in the engine room of a ship.
- The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the Mississippi or St. Lawrence or Sacramento, or Hudson or Paumanok sound, claims him. — 1892
Preceded by a qualifying word: a person who uses abilities or knowledge to manipulate events or people.
•
A person who formulates plots or schemes; a plotter, a schemer.
- [T]he fighting men of England, masters of destruction, engineers of death! — 1903
An honorific title given to engineers before their name.
•
(no longer used) A soldier in charge of operating a weapon; an artilleryman, a gunner.
- Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking / Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer. — 1633

verb5

To employ one's abilities and knowledge as an engineer to design, construct, and/or maintain (something, such as a machine or a structure), usually for industrial or public use.
To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile; to finagle, to wangle.
To formulate plots or schemes; to plot, to scheme.
•
To use genetic engineering to alter or construct (a DNA sequence), or to alter (an organism).
- In an interesting animal study, scientists engineered mice with a specific gene defect that caused memory and learning problems. — 2018
•
(rare) To work as an engineer.
- What of the grand tools with which we engineer, like kobolds and enchanters,—tunnelling Alps, canalling the American Isthmus, piercing the Arabian desert? — 1870

forms

engineered · engineering · engineers

This dictionary works without the internet: on your phone · in Chrome