man engine

• (Received Pronunciation, UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmænˌɛnd͡ʒɪn/

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man engine (plural man engines)

2. (historical) A mechanical lift for raising and lowering people through considerable distances; specifically (mining) a contrivance by which miners ascend or descend in a shaft. It consists of a series of landings in the shaft and an equal number of shelves on a vertical rod which has an up and down motion equal to the distance between the successive landings. A man steps from a landing to a shelf and is lifted or lowered to the next landing, upon which he then steps, and so on, travelling by successive stages.

   Hypernyms: engine ('machine or device' sense), machine, device

   Coordinate term: water engine (machine to raise water out of the mine)

• “man”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• engineman