fire engine

Noun

fire engine (plural fire engines)

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.
   • Near-synonyms: fire truck (usually synonymous in current usage); fire appliance; water engine (formerly synonymous)
   • 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!”1952 September 29, “"BOP VOCABULARY" section, inside of "That Crazy Bop Joke Craze"”, in LIFE Magazine, New York, U.S., page 69

   Synonyms:

   fire truck, fire appliance, water engine

2. (archaic) A steam engine.
   • A plan somewhat similar to this was adopted by Smeaton in the boiler of his portable fire engine.1844, William Pole, A Treatise on the Cornish Pumping Engine - Parts 1-3, page 110
   • 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.1866, Charles Frederick T. Young, Fires, Fire Engines, and Fire Brigades: With a History of Manual and Steam Fire Engines, page 93