donkey engine

1. 1.

   a locomotive for switching rolling stock in a railroad yard

   Synonymsswitch engine

   Broaderlocomotive
2. 2.

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

   Synonymsauxiliary engine

   Broaderengine

   ship

Questions about donkey engine

What does donkey engine mean?

donkey engine means "a locomotive for switching rolling stock in a railroad yard". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for donkey engine?

Close synonyms include switch engine, auxiliary engine. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is donkey engine a common word?

donkey engine is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.