How to Use steam engine in a Sentence

steam engine

noun
  • On top of that, there would be a fight atop the moving steam engine.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 14 Jan. 2024
  • At first, steam engines weren’t good for much more than pumping water.
    — Quanta Magazine, 31 Jan. 2019
  • Among them is a classic steam engine known as the Hudson.
    — Ryan Dennis, CBS News, 24 Feb. 2026
  • What do timepieces have in common with hulking gas and steam engines?
    — Irene Lechowitzky, latimes.com, 29 Oct. 2017
  • The zoo retired two of its old steam engines in 2024.
    — Angelika Ytuarte, jsonline.com, 11 Sep. 2025
  • The major clues were the discovery of the ship's steam engine and its sail system.
    — Kerry Breen, CBS News, 11 Sep. 2024
  • Think Robert Fulton’s steam engine.
    — Michael Kilian, USA Today, 15 Apr. 2026
  • At first glance, the equation Shannon came up with has nothing to do with steam engines.
    — Zack Savitsky, Quanta Magazine, 13 Dec. 2024
  • Vintage steam engines of all makes and models, belching forth smoke and sparks galore.
    — Baltimore Sun Staff, baltimoresun.com, 8 Sep. 2019
  • The steam engine, which dates to 1898, pulled two of the Disney cars.
    — Daniel Miller, latimes.com, 24 May 2018
  • Think back to when the steam engine was first deployed and factories were created.
    — WIRED, 13 June 2023
  • That came decades later, and it was inspired by wanting to understand the steam engine.
    — Quanta Magazine, 7 Oct. 2024
  • For Watt, a tolerance of one-tenth of an inch made his steam engines efficient.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2026
  • Halfway through the trip, passengers will have the chance to exit the train and take photos of the steam engine.
    — Megan Becka, cleveland, 6 Apr. 2022
  • Something was going on well before the invention of the steam engine.
    — Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2022
  • On a more mundane level, people in many places were hiding fire away in closed stoves, steam engines, and furnaces.
    — Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 2 Mar. 2025
  • The Watt steam engine once turned boiling water heat into motion.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 1 Sep. 2025
  • Think of the bicycle, or the steam engine, or glass—all simple and useful enough to be widely copied once they were known.
    — Christopher Mims, WSJ, 1 Apr. 2018
  • Humans have gone from their feet to bicycles, from the steam engine to the jet plane, always looking to boost their miles per hour.
    — Wired, 24 Sep. 2019
  • From the steam engine to the assembly line, each leap has redefined what’s possible on the shop floor.
    — Richard Howells, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025
  • Kester has a ⅓-scale model of a 110-horse Case steam engine from the teens of the last century.
    — Shelley Jones, Chicago Tribune, 23 Sep. 2022
  • This is akin to the ancient Greeks inventing the steam engine and using it only as a children's toy.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2024
  • The invention of the Watt steam engine made coal a more efficient energy source.
    — Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 17 May 2026
  • The steam engine exploded in 1879, destroying the mill and killing four men.
    — Arkansas Online, 12 Apr. 2025
  • The arrival of steam engines in the 19th century changed that forever.
    — David Nikel, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2025
  • People were being enslaved as never before, to the steam engine and the clockwork mechanisms of the world.
    — Justin E. H. Smith, Harper's Magazine, 21 Aug. 2022
  • This expert working of metal is traced back to James Watt and his development of the steam engine.
    — Roma Agrawal, New York Times, 14 May 2018
  • The head and torso of the android, which is powered by a steam engine, takes the form of a Black man pulling a cart, a replacement for a draft horse.
    — Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 18 Feb. 2022
  • Stardrum’s brushwork, sounding like a steam engine at low speed, keeps things from falling apart, but doesn’t put anything together, either.
    — Reed Jackson, SPIN, 3 July 2026
  • Hard work could never compete with a steam engine in pulling a train; decades of training in swordsmanship could never compete with a revolver.
    — Radu Magdin, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'steam engine.' 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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