fire engine — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A vehicle used by firefighters to pump water to fight a fire. Typically, a fire engine carries a supply of water and has the ability to connect to an external water supply.

   Synonyms

   fire truckfire appliancewater engine

   Examples

   Near-synonyms: fire truck (usually synonymous in current usage); fire appliance; water engine (formerly synonymous)

   More examples (2)

   Heading home from a party, two hipsters, completely stoned, pause to snuggle on a park bench. A fire engine roars by, bells clanging, sirens screaming. The boy flips. “Solid, doll,” he murmurs, “they’re playing our song!”

   A fire aboard TfW 175007, working a Holyhead-Cardiff Central service on February 8, closed the A483 road while five fire engines from Wrexham, Deeside, and Cheshire attended the scene.

2. A steam engine.

   Usage

   • Archaic

   Examples

   A plan somewhat similar to this was adopted by Smeaton in the boiler of his portable fire engine.

   More examples (2)

   In the same year a very compact arrangement for a stationary fire engine was described by Mr. Wm. Baddeley, in which he proposed it should be worked like a capstan by means of handspikes, and it could be bolted down to a ship's deck, or fastened wherever wanted.

   This discovery gave a great impulse to mechanical ingenuity, and many schemes were contrived to make this new agent available as a motive power; but the first of these projects that appears to have been of any avail was the fire engine of Captain Tomas Savery, who produced a vacuum by condensing steam in close vessels, and then applied the vacuum so obtained to the elevation of water.

Noun

1. any of various large trucks that carry firemen and equipment to the site of a fire

   Synonyms

   fire truck

   Broader terms

   truckmotortruck