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Mr. Tom Posted 10 years ago
Vocabulary

Reverse engineer something

Hi

It's an interesting coincidence that I heard the phrase 'reverse engineer something' twice today in two different documentaries. 

I haven't checked its complete meaning yet -- still I want to ask if the said phrase is natural in everyday conversation. Could you please shed some light on it?

Thanks,

Tom
  

Top answer

Mr. Tom I want to ask if the said phrase is natural in everyday conversation. I'd say it's fairly common, though it occurs more often among people who are perhaps more inclined toward the sciences.

— CalifJim

  • Mr.
  • Tom I want to ask if the said phrase is natural in everyday conversation.
  • I'd say it's fairly common, though it occurs more often among people who are perhaps more inclined toward the sciences.
  • Reverse engineering is the process of taking a finished device, typically a quite complicated device, and, in the absence of any documentation or diagrams concerning its design and manufacture, "working backwards" to find out how it was made.
  • A great deal of scientific inquiry and discovery depends on this methodology.
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4 Answers
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Mr. Tom I want to ask if the said phrase is natural in everyday conversation.
I'd say it's fairly common, though it occurs more often among people who are perhaps more inclined toward the sciences.

Reverse engineering is the process of taking a finished device, typically a quite complicated device, and, in the absence of any documentation or diagrams
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Thanks, CJ.

I think this was the sentence I bumped into:

[interviewer to the detective who found a few victims against an alleged police officer]

Could it be that you reverse-engineered the investigation and put the power of suggestion into some of these potential victims' heads?

Is power of suggestion an idiomatic expression?

Tom
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Mr. Tominterviewer to the detective who found a few victims? witnesses? against an alleged police officer
"victims" doesn't sound right. Are you sure about that word choice?
"alleged police officer" may or may not be what you really mean. I can't comment further on that one.
Mr. TomIs
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Thanks again, CJ.

Yes, it was something like this.



at 25:40

Tom
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