1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. donkey engine

Find the word definition

What is "donkey engine"

The Collaborative International Dictionary
donkey engine

doctor \doc"tor\, n. [OF. doctur, L. doctor, teacher, fr. docere to teach. See Docile.]

  1. A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge; a learned man. [Obs.]

    One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel. -- Bacon.

  2. An academical title, originally meaning a man so well versed in his department as to be qualified to teach it. Hence: One who has taken the highest degree conferred by a university or college, or has received a diploma of the highest degree; as, a doctor of divinity, of law, of medicine, of music, or of philosophy. Such diplomas may confer an honorary title only.

  3. One duly licensed to practice medicine; a member of the medical profession; a physician.

    By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too. -- Shak.

  4. Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency; as, the doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous coloring matter; the doctor, or auxiliary engine, called also donkey engine.

  5. (Zo["o]l.) The friar skate. [Prov. Eng.]

    Doctors' Commons. See under Commons.

    Doctor's stuff, physic, medicine.
    --G. Eliot.

    Doctor fish (Zo["o]l.), any fish of the genus Acanthurus; the surgeon fish; -- so called from a sharp lancetlike spine on each side of the tail. Also called barber fish. See Surgeon fish.

WordNet
donkey engine

  1. n. a locomotive for switching rolling stock in a railroad yard [syn: switch engine]

  2. (nautical) a small engine (as one used on board ships to operate a windlass) [syn: auxiliary engine]

Usage examples of "donkey engine".

Henry was big for his age, and his father had hired Henry and his brother Gusto work the donkey engine during their summer vacation.

She crept along the open grillework of the catwalk between the two main engines, towards the high girn of the donkey engine and the whining AC generator.

This power was a different sound from the main engines, and I tried to identify it and what it was doing, soon enough I understood that this was some kind of donkey engine reeling in those tow cables.

Tomorrow he would get his donkey engine and sawmill loaded on the wagons and then he would move right in.

It's a quicker, easier way to move the logs than hauling them out with mules or a donkey engine and cables.

Tom came back as the last transformer was being swung up and in by the donkey engine hoist.