Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A self-propelled vehicle, usually electric or diesel-powered, for pulling or pushing freight or passenger cars on railroad tracks.
- n. A driving or pulling force; an impetus: "The US could no longer serve as the locomotive for the world economy” ( George Soros).
- adj. Of, relating to, or involved in locomotion.
- adj. Serving to put into motion or propel forward: "It may be that the founding fathers overestimated the locomotive force of the collective and mutual self-interest” ( Ian Davidson).
- adj. Able to move independently from place to place.
- adj. Of or relating to a self-propelled locomotive.
- adj. Of or relating to travel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Moving from place to place; changing place, or able to effect change of (its own) place: as, a locomotive animal.
- Having the power to produce motion, or to move (something else) from place to place: as, a locomotive organ of the body; a locomotive engine.
- Of or pertaining to locomotion; locomotory.
- n. A steam-engine which travels on wheels turned by its own power; specifically, an engine designed and adapted to travel on a railway; a railroad-engine. Locomotives designed to travel upon the ground or ordinary highways and to draw loads are more commonly called
traction-engines ; and those used upon common roads and designed to carry passengers are calledsteam-wagons or steam-carriages. (Seetraction-engine and steam-carriage.) American locomotives are distinguished from those constructed in other countries by the exterior position of the cylinders, the absence of heavy framing, the use of bogies, a system of suspension by means of bars or levers, and certain minor features, such as the cow-catcher and single headlight. The essential parts of a locomotive are the boiler (usually long, horizontal, and of the “locomotive type” (seelocomotive-boiler ), with many tubes), the running-gear or wheel-system, and the engine proper, this being a double-cylinder, reversing, high-pressure motor, of which the exhaust-steam is thrown into the smoke-stack to urge the draft of the fire. The various wheel-systems employed have given rise to special types of locomotives. See passenger-locomotive, switching-locomotive, tank-locomotive, etc., below. See also cut underpassenger engine . - n. Geared locomotives having toothed driving-wheels, the teeth of which engage a rack, are used for steep grades in mountain railways.
Wiktionary
- adj. of or relating to locomotion
- adj. of or relating to the power unit of a train which does not carry passengers or freight itself
- n. rail transport The power unit of a train which does not carry passengers or freight itself, but pulls the coaches or rail cars or wagons.
- n. rare A traction engine
- n. slang A cheer characterized by a slow beginning and a progressive increase in speed
- n. economics A country which drives the world economy by having a high level of imports. (i.e. The United States).
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Moving from place to place; changing place, or able to change place.
- adj. Used in producing motion.
- n. A locomotive engine; a self-propelling wheel carriage, especially one which bears a steam boiler and one or more steam engines which communicate motion to the wheels and thus propel the carriage, -- used to convey goods or passengers, or to draw wagons, railroad cars, etc. See
Illustration in Appendix.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or relating to locomotion
- n. a wheeled vehicle consisting of a self-propelled engine that is used to draw trains along railway tracks
Etymologies
- Pertaining to movement from French locomotif (feminine locomotive), from Latin loco from a place (ablativus of locus place) + Vulgar Latin motivus moving (see motive) (Wiktionary)
- Latin locō, from a place, ablative of locus, place + Medieval Latin mōtīvus, causing motion; see motive. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's no spunk to it, no life; it's very straightforward, almost to the point where I'm going to have to call it locomotive, which is an adjective I try not to use much when describing fiction.”
“KIEV, Ukraine — A train locomotive rammed through a stalled passenger bus on a railroad crossing in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing 43 people and injuring eight others as the bus was pushed 300 meters (yards) down the tracks.”
The Huffington Post: Ukraine Bus, Train Accident: At Least 40 Killed
“Engine 279 is a Baldwin locomotive, built in Philadelphia, first brought into service in 1904, and now spends most of its time resting contentedly in the Cuautla museum, the museum that is housed in the oldest building ever used as a railway station anywhere in the world.”
Did you know? Cuautla, Mexico, has the world's oldest railway station building.
“Who, like a locomotive, is moving forward, no matter what.”
“If the locomotive is science, we should remember that locomotives run down tracks laid by someone else and can only go to those places to which the tracks already run.”
“Mr. McCollum, now 40, has been arrested 21 times, most recently last June when he tried to steal a locomotive from a railyard in Jamaica, Queens.”
“He was trying to estimate the possible result of putting the "kettle," as he called the locomotive, at full steam ahead, disregarding every other tap and gauge on the driving plate, and devoting himself to heaping up the furnace.”
“A "locomotive" - a platform on tracks propelled by compressed air - ferries workers to their task and brings back buckets of soil.”
“Whether it’s hanging a working locomotive from a crane, suspending cars in the Guggenheim rotunda, or diamonds on a skull, spectacle plays a key role.”
“As they look at the mid-term locomotive headed for them this fall, and at the bloody chaos-theory petrie-dish they’ve made of Iraq, they are simply, going crazy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘locomotive’.
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wanderstar's Words
superlative, mulish, mumps, catatonic, aquiline, clandestine, phantasmagoria, chryselephantine, microfiche, mutineer, reprobate, ruthless and 312 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, L
lisle, lahar, loupe, labret, latten, luster, lagomorph, lamentation, limicole, lunge, lobtail, latifolious and 182 more...
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loco-
motion; from place to place
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Words of weirdness
Weird words that are weird
fjord, rape, carnage, bubbles, wizz, screamery, dominion, panophobia, poopie, gremlin, fuzz, obtain and 103 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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trufutant's Words
conundrum, nonsense, foolishness, swell, cacophony, grizzled, hoary, despot, bloke, ravenous, sot, quirt and 83 more...
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gilroy's Words
locomotive, troglodyte, cavort, processor, predecessor, procrastination, absinthe, calumny
Tweets
Looking for tweets for locomotive.

jmjarmstrong JM knows that train robbers must have a locomotive. May 25, 2011
hernesheir locomotive: A train with insane ideas. Sep 25, 2009
hernesheir "Stop; Look; Listen.
1912 slogan that replaced that of the old US railway-crossing signs that said "Look out for the locomotive". Sep 25, 2009