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Meanings of donkey engine in English

A locomotive for switching rolling stock in a railroad yard.

(Nautical) a small engine (as one used on board ships to operate a windlass)

Synonyms
Examples for "switch engine"
Examples for "switch engine"
1
Just get onto that house; it looks like a mission-style switch engine.
The Rules of the Game
2
He was a railroad engineer who drove a switch engine in the yards.
Tramping on Life / An Autobiographical Narrative
3
He moved forward through the mud, searching the semi-darkness for the switch engine.
Gunsight Pass: How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a ...
4
It was a Marmon, about the size of a switch engine.
Cat’s Cradle
5
Rapidly he related to her the episode of the switch engine in Dexter Allison's millyards.
Then I'll Come Back to You
Usage of donkey engine in English
1
At last the donkey engine was cleared and reinstalled, atop the cliff.
The Mystery
2
Then the puffing and snorting donkey engine near the chute tightened the cable.
The Rules of the Game
3
From the water's edge to the donkey engine was barely four hundred yards.
Big Timber: A Story of the Northwest
4
With his size gang he could not keep a donkey engine working steadily.
Big Timber: A Story of the Northwest
5
You've got to wind it by means of a donkey engine.
Septimus
6
A donkey engine can work like that, but then it hasn't any brains.
Three Acres and Liberty
7
How humiliating for a horse to be dragged aloft by a donkey engine!
St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878
8
Away down the valley a donkey engine tooted and whirred.
The Hidden Places
9
A separate donkey engine is provided for feeding the boiler.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 312, December 24, 1881
10
One donkey engine after another ceased to puff, and the littered decks were cleared.
Tom Swift in the City of Gold; Or, Marvelous Adventures Undergro...
11
The sorrel was lathered, and stumbling frequently; Road Runner was pegging away like a donkey engine.
Waifs and Strays / Part 1
12
The donkey engine was immediately set to work.
The Three Admirals
13
I thought of everything from a Zeppelin to a donkey engine but couldn't make it out.
A Yankee in the Trenches
14
On the knoll the donkey engine coughed and snorted as it heaved the mighty timbers from the woods.
The Rules of the Game
15
In spite of all our gallant little donkey engine can do, it's a six hours job at least.
All Around the Moon
16
By a good, husky donkey engine.
The Rules of the Game