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Definition of "heat engine" []

  • A device that converts heat energy into work. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "heat engine" in a sentence
  • "This gave a great econ - omy of heat and therefore of fuel; it also clarified the idea that a heat engine works by virtue of a flow of heat from a hot to a cold body, the cold body being no less essential than the hot body, or furnace."
  • "And it was not until after the “Scientific Revolution” of the seventeenth century and the demonstration that the atmosphere acts as a heat engine powered by solar energy that the rational basis for the attempt to make such ma - chines was finally destroyed."