How to Use locomotive in a Sentence

locomotive

1 of 2 adjective
  • But a local train got in the way and blocked their view as the famous locomotive chugged by.
    NBC News, 30 Sep. 2020
  • And visitors can board a steam locomotive for a night-time ride around the park.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Nov. 2021
  • How much locomotive force do their beaks provide compared to their legs?
    Grrlscientist, Forbes, 18 May 2022
  • Unions also fought off proposals to cut locomotive crews down from two people to one.
    Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 17 Sep. 2022
  • The three crew members climbed on top of the locomotive, where they were forced to remain as the floodwaters rose.
    Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 July 2021
  • Versions of the engine were used in locomotive devices like early cars and trains.
    Addison Nugent, Popular Mechanics, 29 Nov. 2020
  • Time out for a backward glance over 100 years of locomotive building.
    Wayne Whittaker, Popular Mechanics, 26 Aug. 2021
  • The largest divestiture this year is an $11 billion deal to sell its locomotive unit.
    Alexander Coolidge, Cincinnati.com, 25 June 2018
  • More importantly, the pre-locomotive era tied armies to short supply lines.
    Michael Peck, Forbes, 29 Sep. 2021
  • But that brain of his -- the beautiful machine that powered him was a speeding locomotive.
    oregonlive, 11 June 2020
  • Wood maintains there were other options to keep the locomotive local.
    Dan Scanlan, orlandosentinel.com, 19 June 2021
  • The railways ministry said the locomotive driver had seen a group of people on the tracks and tried to stop but ended up hitting them.
    New York Times, 8 May 2020
  • But the costumes and — once the show finally starts letting songs last more than a line — the singing and dancing have locomotive power.
    Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Sep. 2023
  • But Jamison ignores the call, heads to a train crossing, and stands on the tracks as a locomotive approaches.
    Matt Cabral, Entertainment Weekly, 1 June 2026
  • The locomotive and its staff ultimately made it across the bridge—no cracking, snapping, or swaying in sight.
    Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Mar. 2026
  • The scenic railroad offers a five-mile trip around the mountain on a 1940s locomotive.
    AccessAtlanta, 17 June 2022
  • The railroad's locomotive engineers are among the highest paid in the nation.
    Alexa Herrera, CBS News, 13 May 2026
  • The train's horn blared before the locomotive collided with the trailer, sending debris on both sides of the crossing.
    Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 16 Oct. 2021
  • In his 25 years as a locomotive engineer, Eddie Hall saw his trains grow longer and longer.
    Lee Powell, Washington Post, 25 May 2023
  • That’s where the soul of this locomotive collaboration lies.
    Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Thinking of the Dearman engine purely as a source of locomotive power missed its unique selling point.
    Nicola Twilley, Wired, 1 Apr. 2020
  • The locomotive system consists of four legs with 5 active DoF each.
    IEEE Spectrum, 27 Mar. 2020
  • The locomotive and coal car that used to steam by the depot is on public display in a nearby Sportsman's Park.
    Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 20 Mar. 2023
  • Police said the locomotive and rail cars sustained minor damage and remained upright.
    Jalen Williams, Freep.com, 25 Nov. 2025
  • Often referred to as a train, the faux stars resemble a locomotive chugging through the atmosphere.
    The Arizona Republic, 5 May 2023
  • Then the whistle from what sounds like a steam locomotive blows, and everyone in the restaurant looks up to see a train carting a box of food to someone’s table.
    Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, 2 Jan. 2025
  • Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured when the locomotive and four of the train’s seven passenger cars jumped the tracks.
    Time, 26 Sep. 2021
  • Sure, Ye is rapping in fuller, more locomotive sentences again, but everything that manages to jump out of the mix does so on whiffed shock value.
    Chris Richards, Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2024
  • Water drips from the undersides of the locomotive boilers, leaving muddy paths alongside the wheels.
    Mark Orwoll, Travel + Leisure, 5 Oct. 2023
  • While a sole pickup truck would never be able to do that much damage to a locomotive in real life, Abrams wasn’t striving for realism.
    Josh Weiss, Forbes, 1 June 2021

locomotive

2 of 2 noun
  • Along the way, rail fans from all over await the locomotive's arrival.
    Neal Earley, Arkansas Online, 22 Aug. 2021
  • The boiler of the new locomotive was filled with water and she was coaled up.
    Wayne Whittaker, Popular Mechanics, 26 Aug. 2021
  • Bowman claimed that any part of the cement roof could hold up a locomotive.
    Celia Storey, Arkansas Online, 24 May 2021
  • When football tosses coal your way, might as well stoke the locomotive.
    Bryce Miller Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Dec. 2021
  • People of all ages lined the tracks, watching the steam locomotive chug through.
    Kayla Moeller, CBS News, 10 Apr. 2026
  • This means a locomotive would then have to move the railcars back so that workers could try again in the same spot.
    Esther Fung, WSJ, 6 Sep. 2022
  • The rumble of the locomotive was a welcome change from the sound of sirens back in Dnipro.
    Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2022
  • The tunnel was used by steam locomotives and produced plenty of foul air.
    Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 6 Jan. 2024
  • It can be found in the sequence depicting the birth of the locomotive.
    Fred Topel, Deadline, 7 Dec. 2025
  • These narrow-gauge lines, with small locomotives and rail cars, were similar to those seen at a theme park.
    Nick Yetto, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 June 2023
  • Disney feels that the rights its has secured will still act as a locomotive for other content.
    Patrick Frater, Variety, 14 June 2022
  • The climb was steep and the train needed a push from an extra locomotive, which coupled onto the rear.
    Dan Schwartz, Fortune, 7 Apr. 2023
  • After the engineer left, a small fire broke out in the lead locomotive which had been spewing oil all day.
    Ian Austen, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2023
  • Traffic on neighboring roads slowed to a crawl as motorists craned their necks for a view of the locomotive.
    New York Times, 2 May 2022
  • The train is far from your average locomotive.
    Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 25 Sep. 2025
  • The locomotive gets going again on the rails on Thursday.
    Noel Brennan, CBS News, 3 June 2026
  • The train applied its emergency brakes, which caused some rail cars on the train to detach from the locomotive.
    Adam Sabes, Fox News, 20 Feb. 2022
  • The locomotive is 44 yards long.
    Brooke Park, San Francisco Chronicle, 31 Mar. 2026
  • In one hand, Elizabeth carried a large leather clutch in the shape of a steam locomotive.
    Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2023
  • The locomotive is now out of service as volunteers work to rebuild it.
    Blake Pontchartrain, NOLA.com, 12 Oct. 2020
  • Many parks offer standard amenities, but few can claim a steam locomotive as part of their landscape.
    Bill Bootz, Charlotte Observer, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The locomotive itself was a detailed miniature a full-size human could ride atop.
    Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Times, 3 Jan. 2024
  • Vacuum-cars that suck up debris from the roadbed are also pushed by diesel locomotives.
    Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 2 Mar. 2026
  • New York City Transit’s work train fleet is made up of a mix of locomotives.
    Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 2 Mar. 2026
  • The train itself is less of a train and more of a trolley—a one-car locomotive with open-air seats under a proud metal roof.
    The Editors, Outside, 31 Aug. 2025
  • Ja Morant is the locomotive who will pull the Grizzlies back to near the top of the West.
    Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 17 Oct. 2022
  • The brand-new electric locomotive will now be known as the Nancy Pelosi train.
    John Ramos, CBS News, 23 Mar. 2026
  • Its beam could warn a ship at sea, intimidate an actor, shine brighter than the headlight of a locomotive.
    John McPhee, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2022
  • When a train stopped below the tower, coal could be sent into the locomotives storage bunker to fuel the train.
    Jalen Williams, Freep.com, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Beef and pork meatloaf coated in mashed potatoes formed a locomotive with a wine cork chimney and biscuit wheels on jerky tracks.
    The Indianapolis Star, 27 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'locomotive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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