engines

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of engine.

   The ship's two engines drove it through the heavy swell.

   Jet engines generate thrust by forcing hot gas out the back.

   Note

   One plural covers several kinds of machine. The engines of a siege were battering rams and catapults. Modern engines are the motors that drive cars, ships and aircraft. The figurative plural still works for people or groups that drive a larger body forward. The same spelling serves as the verb form, but after a determiner or number (the engines, two engines) it is always this noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of engine.

   Note

   A transitive form that always needs an object: a yard engines a hull, a maker engines its sedans. Its one living meaning, to fit something with an engine, is now dated and was said especially of steam vessels. The older meanings, to batter with a siege engine or to contrive a scheme, are obsolete. A singular subject before it marks it as a verb, not the plural noun.

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