donkey engine

British  

noun

1. a small auxiliary engine, such as one used for pumping water into the boilers of a steamship

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Example Sentences

In its closing days, the smooth-running 80th Congress clanked and rattled like a leaky donkey engine.

From Time Magazine Archive

In French waters he became a practical mariner, laid cables with a donkey engine, came home on a terrifically tough voyage aboard the surrendered German submarine, U-117.

From Time Magazine Archive

I did that when I was 13 or 14 years old and firing a donkey engine in timber territory.

From Time Magazine Archive

Away down the valley a donkey engine tooted and whirred.

From The Hidden Places by Sinclair, Bertrand W.

"It puffed like a locomotive," said a boy of the donkey engine; "it whistled like the steam-cars, but it didn't go anywhere."

From How to Succeed or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune by Marden, Orison Swett