Phrase guide

man engine

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmæn‿ˌɛnd͡ʒɪn/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A mechanical lift for raising and lowering people through considerable distances; specifically (mining), a device by which miners ascend or descend in a shaft, consisting of a series of landings or sollars in the shaft and an equal number of shelves on a vertical rod which has an up and down motion equal to the distance between the successive landings. A person steps from a landing to a shelf and is raised or lowered to the next landing, upon which they then step, and so on, travelling by successive stages.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: engine, machine, device

History

Etymology

From man (noun) + engine (noun), referring to an engine for raising or lowering people.

Across languages

Translations

8 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Dutch: fahrkunst — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people
  • Finnish: askelmallinen kaivosmiesten nostin — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people
  • German: Fahrkunst — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people
  • Norwegian Bokmål: farkunst — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people
  • Polish: winda skokowa — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people
  • Russian: фа́ркунст (fárkunst) — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people
  • Spanish: elevador de varilla minero — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people
  • Ukrainian: фа́ркунст (fárkunst) — mechanical lift for raising or lowering people