Pretengineer 

One who has never obtained licensure or even earned an undergraduate degree in engineering, but tells people he's an engineer anyway in order to stroke his ego. Technically unlawful under most jurisdictions.

Chase tells everyone he's a professional engineer, but he's only obtained a 2-year technician's degree. What a pretengineer.

Pretengineer by Hairdressor459 July 12, 2017

Pretengineer 

When a person, who is not an engineer or an engineering student, tries to explain engineering concepts to you, and fails miserably.

Geo Engineer: That batter is safe. It will not fail.
Safety Officer: That batter isn't safe, it's going to fail.
Site Engineer: F*** that safety officer is such an idiot!
Me: Yeah, what a pretengineer!

Pretengineer by Rumbley October 30, 2011

Pretengineer 

A person who has no hesitation in making decisons with regard to complex issues, but who refuses to accept any responsibility for potential consequences. This person is often very loud during group conversations and will unnecessarily CC many others into an email chain for demonstration purposes. However, this person will seemingly dissappear from the conversation as soon as questions are raised over accountability and ownership.

Frank has been pretengineering a long time and needs to let everyone know how things should be done.

Frank emailed Lee a long list of items which needed to be ammended on Lee's design. Some Frank's suggestions were creating conflicts in the design and Lee asked Frank for written clarification.

Frank replied that he was too busy and told Lee to speak with Pat.

Pretengineer by Eli Ca$h July 4, 2024

Pretengineering 

The art of pretending to engineer or possess scientific and/or technical knowledge. Pretengineering may be motivated by idiocy, intense laziness, or a hangover.

Rick was pretengineering for all he was worth at the meeting this morning, which was not much. The Leaning tower of Pisa was obviously built by pretengineers.

Pretengineering by tranceglobal41 January 20, 2009