I am in the middle of an argument, and therefore trying to figure out the breakdown of the definition:
a member of a military group devoted to engineering work
which appears in Merriam-Webster's entry for "engineer" (Definition 1). The dictionary entry also includes this example sentence:
Army engineers were called in to construct the canal.
I assume the definition means 'a member of a group in the military where the group is devoted to engineering work' while the person with whom I am arguing assumes the sentence means 'an individual who is devoted to engineering work who is also in a military group'.
I am looking for both what the definition means, as well as why it means what it does. This would ideally take the form of citing some official guide (MLA, Chicago, etc...), but if the explanation is cogent enough it will still be extremely useful.