What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Engine vs Horsepower - What's the difference?

engine | horsepower |

As nouns the difference between engine and horsepower

is that engine is (obsolete) ingenuity; cunning, trickery, guile while horsepower is a non-metric unit of power (symbol hp) with various definitions, for different applications the most common of them is probably the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 7457 watts.

As a verb engine

is (obsolete) to assault with an engine.

engine

English

(wikipedia engine) (Engines)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) Ingenuity; cunning, trickery, guile.
  • (obsolete) The result of cunning; something ingenious, a contrivance; (in negative senses) a plot, a scheme.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , II.i:
    • Therefore this craftie engine he did frame, / Against his praise to stirre vp enmitye [...].
  • (obsolete) Natural talent; genius.
  • Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; an agent.
  • * Bunyan
    • You see the ways the fisherman doth take / To catch the fish; what engines doth he make?
  • * Shakespeare
    • Their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust.
  • A large construction used in warfare, such as a battering ram, catapult etc.
  • * 1714 , (Bernard Mandeville), The Fable of the Bees :
    • Flattery must be the most powerful Argument that cou'd be used to Human Creatures. Making use of this bewitching Engine , they extoll'd the Excellency of our Nature above other Animals [...].
  • A complex mechanical device which converts energy into useful motion or physical effects.
  • A person or group of people which influence a larger group; a driving force.
  • The part of a car or other vehicle which provides the force for motion, now especially one powered by internal combustion.
  • A self-powered vehicle, especially a locomotive, used for pulling cars along a track.
  • (computing) A software or hardware system responsible for a specific technical task (usually with qualifying word).
    • a graphics engine'''; a physics '''engine

    Synonyms

    * motor

    Derived terms

    * aero engine * aircraft engine * diesel engine * engine driver * engine trouble * engineer * fire engine * four-stroke engine * jet engine * marine engine * search engine * steam engine * tank engine * two-stroke engine

    Related terms

    * genius * ingenious * ingeniosity

    Verb

    (engin)
  • (obsolete) To assault with an engine.
  • * (rfdate) T. Adams.
    • To engine and batter our walls.
  • (dated) To equip with an engine; said especially of steam vessels.
    • Vessels are often built by one firm and engined by another.
  • (obsolete) To rack; to torture.
    • (Chaucer)

    External links

    * * English refractory feminine rhymes

    horsepower

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia horsepower) (en-noun)
  • A non-metric unit of power (symbol hp) with various definitions, for different applications. The most common of them is probably the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 745.7 watts.
  • * 2012 March 22nd, David Blockley, Engineering: (309), (Oxford University Press), ISBN 9780199578696, chapter 2: “The age of gravity – time for work”, page 20:
    • In the past, before the widespread adoption of SI units, the work that engines were capable of doing was compared with the work that horses could do – hence the term ‘horsepower'’. Various people came up with various equivalencies, but the modern agreed definition is that 1 ' horsepower is 746 joules per second or 746 watts.
  • A metric horsepower (symbol often PS from the German abbreviation), approximately equal to 735.5 watts.
  • Strength
    • political horsepower

    Derived terms

    * horsepower-hour * hydraulic horsepower * mechanical horsepower * thermal horsepower