Search the Dictionary

from Switch, v. Switching engine, a locomotive for switching cars from one track to another, and making up trains; -- called also switch engine. [U.S.]

A team of horses harnessed one before the other. "He drove tandems." Thackeray. Tandem engine, a compound steam engine having two or more steam cylinders in the same axis, close to one another. -- Tandem bicycle or tricycle, one for two persons in which one rider sits before the other.

A large basin or cistern; an artificial receptacle for liquids. Tank engine, a locomotive which carries the water and fuel it requires, thus dispensing with a tender. -- Tank iron, plate iron thinner than boiler plate, and thicker than sheet iron or stovepipe iron. -- Tank worm (Zoöl.), a small nematoid worm found in…

A rod carrying a tappet or tappets, as one for closing the valves in a Cornish pumping engine.

ad, an electric line or road over which vehicles for carrying loads are moved by electric engines actuated by a current conveyed by the line.

A heat engine; a hot-air engine.

Having three ports; specif.: Designating a type of two-cycle internal-combustion engine in which the mixture enters the crank case through a port uncovered by the piston near the end of its stroke.

The throttle valve. Throttle lever (Steam Engine), the hand lever by which a throttle valve is moved, especially in a locomotive. -- Throttle valve (Steam Engine), a valve moved by hand or by a governor for regulating the supply of steam to the steam chest. In one form it consists of a disk turning on a transverse axi…

To fling or cast in any manner; to drive to a distance from the hand or from an engine; to propel; to send; as, to throw stones or dust with the hand; a cannon throws a ball; a fire engine throws a stream of water to extinguish flames.

(a) One who throws or twists silk; a throwster. (b) One who shapes vessels on a throwing engine.

a. & n. from Throw, v. Throwing engine, Throwing mill, Throwing table, or Throwing wheel (Pottery), a machine on which earthenware is first rudely shaped by the hand of the potter from a mass of clay revolving rapidly on a disk or table carried by a vertical spindle; a potter's wheel.

An engine for casting stones. [Obs.] Sir T. Elyot.

An engine or machine for destroying ships by blowing them up. Specifically: --

An instrument for determining the torque on a shaft, and hence the horse power of an engine, esp. of a marine engine of high power, by measuring the amount of twist of a given length of the shaft. Called also torsimeter, torsiometer, torsometer.

with a given plane by the line of direction in which a tractive force acts. -- Traction engine, a locomotive for drawing vehicles on highways or in the fields.

-- Trailing spring, a spring fixed in the axle box of the trailing wheels of a locomotive engine, and so placed as to assist in deadening any shock which may occur. Weale. -- Trailing wheel, a hind wheel of a locomotive when it is not a driving wheel; also, one of the hind wheels of a carriage.

To draw along; to trail; to drag. In hollow cube Training his devilish enginery. Milton.

An instrument resembling a theodolite, used by surveyors and engineers; -- called also transit compass, and surveyor's transit.

A fisherman who used unlawful arts and engines to catch fish. [Obs.] Cowell.

A military engine used in the Middle Ages for throwing stones, etc. It acted by means of a great weight fastened to the short arm of a lever, which, being let fall, raised the end of the long arm with great velocity, hurling stones with much force.