Definition of "engineer" []

• One who is trained or professionally engaged in a branch of engineering. (noun)
• One who operates an engine. (noun)
• One who skillfully or shrewdly manages an enterprise. (noun)
• To plan, construct, or manage as an engineer. (verb-transitive)
• To alter or produce by methods of genetic engineering: "Researchers . . . compared insulin manufactured by bacteria genetically engineered with recombinant DNA techniques to the commercial insulin obtained from swine or cattle” ( Fusion). (verb-transitive)

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.

• "A train engineer is lulled to sleep by the monotony of the job and misses a signal."
• "In contrast, the term engineer is often associated with someone called out to repair a photocopier or gas boiler, where they are often dressed in clothing that is functional rather than a suit."
• "D. from two of the world’s finest engineering schools, a sizable handful of publications in peer-reviewed engineering and scientific journals (and a number more at large conferences), and am currently a working engineer consulting to the nuclear power industry in Ontario (where, incidentally, it is illegal for an unqualified person such as yourself to use the title engineer)."