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 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

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

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.

The use of water power, the horse, and sometimes the ox, gave way to the use of the donkey engine.

From The Everett massacre A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry by Smith, Walker C.