engineernoun/ˌɛn(d)ʒɪˈnɪə/

• 1

  governmentmilitarypoliticsA 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: […]
  • Novv he began another Trade, and became an Ingenor, hauing got eight Fire-brands of hell more to him, onely of purpoſe to ſet our houſe a fire.
• 2

  obsoletegovernmentmilitarypoliticsA soldier in charge of operating a weapon; an artilleryman, a gunner.

  • This is hard welcome, but it was not you, / At whom the fatal enginer did ayme, / My breaſt the levell was, though you the marke, / In which conſpiracie anſwere me Duke, / Is not thy ſoule as guiltie as the Earles?
  • Wit's an unruly engine, wildly ſtriking / Sometimes a friend, ſometimes the engineer.
• 3

  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.

  • [T]o an Enginer alſo, vvho promiſed to bring into the Capitoll huge Columnes vvith ſmall charges, hee gave for his deviſe no meane revvard; and releaſed him his labour in performing that vvorke, ſaying vvithall by vvay of preface, That he ſhould ſuffer him to feed the poore commons.
• 4

  Originally, a person engaged in designing, constructing, or maintaining engines or machinery; now (more generally), a person qualified or professionally engaged in any branch of engineering, or studying to do so.

  • Macanopoietico, an inginer, an engine-maker.
  • [N]ear St. Laurence-Lane his lordship receives an entertainment from an unparalleled masterpiece of art, called the Crystal Sanctuary, styled by the name of the Temple of Integrity, […] and more to express the invention and the art of the engineer, as also for motion, variety, and the content of the spectators, this Crystal Temple is made to open in many parts, at fit and convenient times, and upon occasion of the speech; […]
• 5

  historicalA person trained to operate an engine.

  • The machinery [the steam engine] has proved, like the balloon, unmanageable, and flies away with the aeronaut. Steam, from the first, hissed and screamed to warn him; it was dreadful with its explosion, and crushed the engineer. The machinist has wrought and watched, engineers and firemen without number have been sacrificed in learning to tame and guide the monster.
  • 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.
• 6

  firefightinggovernmentA person trained to operate an engine.

• 7

  rail-transportrailwaystransportA person trained to operate an engine.

• 8

  Preceded by a qualifying word: a person who uses abilities or knowledge to manipulate events or people.

  • a political engineer
  • Now that I may not ſeem to paſs my Cenſure raſhly, I deſire that my more intelligent Readers will pleaſe to reduce the following things into Meaning, if they can, and favour us with the Interpretation; being ſome particular Account of the Life of this famous, religious Ingineer, for I know not what elſe to call him, and the Titles of ſome of his Books.

engineerverb/ˌɛn(d)ʒɪˈnɪə/

• 1

  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.

• 2

  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.
• 3

  To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile; to finagle, to wangle.

• 4

  To formulate plots or schemes; to plot, to scheme.

• 5

  rareTo 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?