Word.ws English Dictionary

switch engine

switch engine noun: a switcher or shunter: a railroad locomotive used for shunting.

Noun

switch engine (plural switch engines)

  1. A switcher or shunter: a railroad locomotive used for shunting.
  2. A particular methuselah in Conway's Game of Life that temporarily exhibits glide reflection symmetry while leaving debris behind, allowing for the construction of spaceships, puffers, and rakes.
    • 2. Is it possible to make the switch engine leave debris other than the normal 8 blocks/288 generations?1990 May 17, David Moews, “Life questions”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
    • He did this by placing a large number of switch engines together so as to eliminate all debris. His original ship required 13 switch engines, but his smaller one given here only uses 10 of them.1992 August 13, David Bell, “Spaceships in Conway's Life (Part 1)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)

Forms of switch engine

pluralswitch engines

Questions about switch engine

What does switch engine mean?
Switch engine means a switcher or shunter: a railroad locomotive used for shunting.
What part of speech is switch engine?
Switch engine is a noun.
What is the plural of switch engine?
The plural of switch engine is switch engines.

Words near switch engine in the dictionary

  1. switch boxes
  2. switch cane
  3. switch canes
  4. switch codes
  5. switch dealing
  6. switch engine
  7. switch engines
  8. switch gear
  9. switch gears
  10. switch grass
  11. switch grasses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: switch engine (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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