donkey engine

British  

noun

1. a small auxiliary engine, such as one used for pumping water into the boilers of a steamship

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Example Sentences

In its closing days, the smooth-running 80th Congress clanked and rattled like a leaky donkey engine.

From Time Magazine Archive

In French waters he became a practical mariner, laid cables with a donkey engine, came home on a terrifically tough voyage aboard the surrendered German submarine, U-117.

From Time Magazine Archive

I did that when I was 13 or 14 years old and firing a donkey engine in timber territory.

From Time Magazine Archive

Formerly "strings" of oxen or Percheron horses were used, but they are now largely superseded by some form of donkey engine, Fig.

From Handwork in Wood by Noyes, William

The cabins were stuffy and the clamour of the donkey engine made him restless.

From The Island Mystery by Birmingham, George A.