engineering, vbl. n.
(ɛndʒɪˈnɪərɪŋ)
[f. prec. + -ing1.]
1. a. The action of the verb engineer; the work done by, or the profession of, an engineer. b. The art and science of the engineer's profession.
Often used with defining words, as in civil, mechanical, military engineering; agricultural, electric, gas, hydraulic, railway, sanitary, telegraph engineering; see engineer n. 2–4. chemical, electrical, human, social engineering: see the first elements.
| 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton xv. (1840) 262 This [a contrivance in defensive warfare] is..the cunningest piece of Indian engineering. 1829 C. Welch Wesl. Polity 172 A Sunday School Teacher's labour is not much unlike civil engineering. 1840 Civil. Eng. & Archit. Journ. 59 There is room for..a school of Engineering on sound principles. 1858 Greener Gunnery 267 That portion of engineering which would define what power of engine would work a thousand cotton spindles. 1866 Engineering 5 Jan. 1 The title of this journal has been chosen..as typifying the business, art, and profession of the Engineer. 1873 Tristram Moab xiv. 270 An ancient roadway of which the engineering..could be easily traced. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. i. 29 Civil Engineering is the term applied to that science which treats of the construction of canals, railroads, roads, bridges..aqueducts and such like. 1887 Daily News 24 Oct. 2/5. Shipbuilding and marine engineering have lately been doing better. |
c. fig. Contriving, manœuvring.
| 1780 Cowper Progr. Err. 321 With some cold moral think to quench the fire; Though all your engineering proves in vain. 1884 St. James's Gaz. 21 Mar. 3/2 Party engineering and the trickery of elections. |
2. attrib. engineering geology,
engineering shop,
engineering yard. Also
engineering science, engineering regarded as a field of study,
esp. that part of it which can be treated according to the laws of mathematics and the physical sciences; used
esp. as the name of a department in places of higher education.
| 1792 Burke Consid. Pres. St. Affairs Wks. VII. 93 One arm is extremely good, the engineering and artillery branch. |
| 1865 Brande Dict. Sci. (ed. 2) I. 779/2 Engineering geology. 1961 J. Challinor Dict. Geol. 68/1 Engineering geology, geology applied to engineering, including building construction. |
| 1884 Athenæum 27 Sept. 397/3 The military and engineering policy of the rulers of the kingdom. |
| 1901 Engineering 6 Sept. 331/2 The policy of the University [of Glasgow]..is to offer to students a course of study in engineering science, and to leave them to acquire their experience and practice in the office or in the workshop. 1907 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 15 Oct. 68/1 The above Statute proposes to establish a Professorship of Engineering Science... The Professor will give Laboratory—but not Workshop—Instruction. 1911 Engineering 7 July 40/3 The classification and analysis of the phenomena presented to the engineer in the practice of his art conveniently called ‘Engineering Science’, occupies a position intermediate between biology..and physics... It is founded on the laws of motion, of heat, and of electricity, whose action is investigated in the physical laboratory; but it is concerned with the working of these laws under conditions comparable in their complexity with those under which the same laws work in living things. 1930 Ibid. 24 Jan. 98/3 His laboratory..was used to enlarge the boundaries of engineering science. |
| 1919 Brit. Manufacturer Nov. 24/1 Engineering shops. |
| 1822 Byron Juan vii. xi, Excuse this engineering slang. |
| 1739 C. Labelye Westm. Br. v, Very great masters in the Building or Engineering Way. |
| 1758 Warburton Div. Legat. Pref. (R.), The Roman Conclave succeeded to the Roman Senate in this engineering work. |
| 1919 Brit. Manufacturer Nov. 24/2 Engineering yards. |