compound engine
Britishnoun
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a steam engine in which the steam is expanded in more than one stage, first in a high-pressure cylinder and then in one or more low-pressure cylinders
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a reciprocating engine in which the exhaust gases are expanded in a turbine to drive a turbocharger
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Although the Wright turbo compound engine was standard on both the DC-7 and Super Constellation, it proved so unsatisfactory that airlines were not interested in Wright engines for the new jet airliners.
From Time Magazine Archive
A compound engine has two cylinders, sometimes one on each side of the locomotive; other types have four cylinders or two on each side of the locomotive.
From The Traveling Engineers' Association To Improve The Locomotive Engine Service of American Railroads by Anonymous
Q. How do you test for blow in high and low-pressure cylinder packing for each type of compound engine?
From The Traveling Engineers' Association To Improve The Locomotive Engine Service of American Railroads by Anonymous
Driven by a little steeple compound engine, in the pride of her youth she could make ten knots.
From Captain Scraggs or, The Green-Pea Pirates by Grant, Gordon
The compound engine, even, as has been seen, was invented by contemporaries of Watt, and the only important modifications since his time have occurred in details.
From A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine by Thurston, Robert H.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
