Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A feedpump for steam-boilers, also often used as supplementary to other apparatus.
  • noun An additional steam-pump which can be employed when the main engine is not working, or for special work, such as washing decks, removing bilge-water, or in case of fire.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • There was nothin 'for me to do save watch the hawsers an' the Kite's tail squatterin 'down in white watter when she lifted to a sea; so I got steam on the after donkey-pump, an' pumped oot the engine-room.

    The Day's Work - Volume 1 Rudyard Kipling 1900

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