engine Copy link Outline 1. māchĭna2. māchĭnātio3. māchĭnāmentum4. tormentum (a military e. for discharging heavy missiles)5. orgănum (ὄργανον • engine: 1. māchĭna: to capture a town by means of e.s of all kinds, machinis omnium generum expugnare oppidum, Sall.: Hor. (who applies the term to windlasses, Od. 1, 4, 2): Veget. 2. māchĭnātio: (strictly the act of contrivance or construction: hence usually with the notion of activity, force applied): to advance e.s of such enormous height, tantae altitudinis machinationes promovere, Caes. B. G. 2, 31: Liv. Vitr. 3. māchĭnāmentum: e.s for battering walls, m. quatiendis parietibus, Liv. 24, 34, med.: Veget. 4. tormentum (a military e. for discharging heavy missiles): e.s and works of war, t. bellica atque opera, Liv. 24, 34: to arm a wall with every kind of offensive e., murum omni genere tormentorum instruere, Liv. l. c.: Caes. 5. orgănum (ὄργανον: rare): Vitr. 10, 10 (15), init. N.B.--For various kinds of siege engines, see Liv. l. c. and Veget. 4, 13, sqq.
ENGINE Copy link • ENGINEmachina (also figuratively): machinatio (also figuratively): machinamentum (piece of machinery). Anything is meant to be an engine, to effect any purpose, aliquid ad rem faciendam tamquam machina comparatur (Cic.). Military engines, machinae (of which the particular kinds are vineae, turres, etc.).