How to Use steam engine in a Sentence

steam engine

noun
Definition of steam enginenext
  • The steam engine, which dates to 1898, pulled two of the Disney cars.
    — Daniel Miller, latimes.com, 24 May 2018
  • On top of that, there would be a fight atop the moving steam engine.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 14 Jan. 2024
  • Kester has a ⅓-scale model of a 110-horse Case steam engine from the teens of the last century.
    — Shelley Jones, Chicago Tribune, 23 Sep. 2022
  • For one thing, the 1906 steam engine was difficult to keep.
    — Tom Henderson | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 22 Sep. 2022
  • The major clues were the discovery of the ship's steam engine and its sail system.
    — Kerry Breen, CBS News, 11 Sep. 2024
  • Halfway through the trip, passengers will have the chance to exit the train and take photos of the steam engine.
    — Megan Becka, cleveland, 6 Apr. 2022
  • Henry Ford fixed watches and built steam engines as a kid.
    — John Gardner, Fortune, 23 July 2024
  • The head and torso of the android, which is powered by a steam engine, takes the form of a Black man pulling a cart, a replacement for a draft horse.
    — Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 18 Feb. 2022
  • At first, steam engines weren’t good for much more than pumping water.
    — Quanta Magazine, 31 Jan. 2019
  • Think of the bicycle, or the steam engine, or glass—all simple and useful enough to be widely copied once they were known.
    — Christopher Mims, WSJ, 1 Apr. 2018
  • Humans have gone from their feet to bicycles, from the steam engine to the jet plane, always looking to boost their miles per hour.
    — Wired, 24 Sep. 2019
  • What do timepieces have in common with hulking gas and steam engines?
    — Irene Lechowitzky, latimes.com, 29 Oct. 2017
  • The car aficionado and star of Jay Leno's Garage was working on a steam engine underneath a car in his garage around 12:30 p.m. when the blaze broke out.
    — Anna Lazarus Caplan, Peoplemag, 28 Nov. 2022
  • In 1851, the Free Press bought a steam engine to power the paper's printing press, which is dubbed Peggy Ann for reasons now long lost.
    — Dan Austin, Detroit Free Press, 5 May 2022
  • The breakthrough was the improved steam engine of 1776, which could use coal to pump out the flooded mines, greatly extending the reach of British miners.
    — Daniel Immerwahr, The New Republic, 1 Dec. 2020
  • The world's largest steam engine stopped in Altoona at 1 p.m. Tuesday for an extended stay.
    — Alexa Buechler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 23 July 2019
  • Their authentic steam engine train is over 110 years old.
    — Nour Rahal, Detroit Free Press, 23 Mar. 2023
  • Something was going on well before the invention of the steam engine.
    — Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2022
  • Vintage steam engines of all makes and models, belching forth smoke and sparks galore.
    — Baltimore Sun Staff, baltimoresun.com, 8 Sep. 2019
  • This expert working of metal is traced back to James Watt and his development of the steam engine.
    — Roma Agrawal, New York Times, 14 May 2018
  • Think back to when the steam engine was first deployed and factories were created.
    — WIRED, 13 June 2023
  • The sculpture proclaimed that the three greatest inventions of the previous 500 years were the steam engine, the electric telegraph and what?
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 24 Dec. 2019
  • Originally built way back in 1923, the Flying Scotsman is one of the world's most famous steam engines.
    — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, 26 Feb. 2016
  • Historic train ride on the LM&M Railroad behind a working steam engine.
    — Luann Gibbs, Cincinnati.com, 29 July 2019
  • People were being enslaved as never before, to the steam engine and the clockwork mechanisms of the world.
    — Justin E. H. Smith, Harper's Magazine, 21 Aug. 2022
  • The update from Allen comes less than a week after Leno, 72, was working on a steam engine underneath a car in his garage when a fire began.
    — Brenton Blanchet, Peoplemag, 18 Nov. 2022
  • Nye: People like to say around the year 1750; this is when James Watt, who was a mechanical engineer, got a steam engine that worked very well.
    — Saleen Martin, USA TODAY, 4 June 2022
  • Riders will enjoy a free 15-minute ride on a miniature steam engine courtesy of the Houston Area Live Steamers.
    — Gabi De La Rosa, Chron, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Which changed the world more, steam engines or computers, is debatable.
    — The Economist, 18 July 2019
  • The magnetic compass, gunpowder, the printing press, the chronometer, the cotton gin, the steam engine and the water wheel are among the many examples.
    — Naomi Oreskes, Scientific American, 1 Sep. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'steam engine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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