Etymology Back-formation from reverse engineering.
1
To derive or duplicate the design, technical specifications, manufacturing methods, or functionality of an object by studying an existing product, prototype, etc.
1997, Roy A. Sorensen, "The Metaphysics of Precision and Scientific Language," Noûs, vol. 31, Supplement: Philosophical Perspectives, 11, p. 363, Each creature was viewed as the artifact of a divine blueprint. The role of the biologist was to reverse engineer God's handiwork.
In theory, there should be no need to reverse-engineer a patented invention to get information about how to make it because the patent specification should inform the relevant technical community of how to make the invention.2002, P. Samuelson, S. Scotchmer, “The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering”, in The Yale Law Journal, volume 111, number 7, page 1584:
2
To create or modify an implementation to better conform to a desired goal.
Typically, you complete some design, some implementation, some testing, come up with some good ideas which you implement, and then reverse-engineer your implementation into an improved design.2003, Per Kroll, Philippe Kruchten, The Rational Unified Process Made Easy, →ISBN:
As a matter of preference, always prefer to reverse engineer a roof plan, even when one already exists, but both methods will be discussed here along with their benefits and drawbacks.2012, Brian L. Smith, 3ds Max Design Architectural Visualization, →ISBN:
1 more example
When this happened, Braun said, the editors were often obliged to “reverse engineer” the episode, scouring hundreds of hours of footage to emphasize the few moments when the exemplary candidate might have slipped up, in an attempt to assemble an artificial version of history in which Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip decision made sense.2018 December 27, Patrick Radden Keefe, “How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success”, in The New Yorker:
Etymology Back-formation from reverse engineering.
1
A person who reverse-engineers products.
A reverse-engineer can in theory do a variety of things with the information she obtains.1998, M. Lemley, D. McGowan, “Legal Implications of Network Economic Effects”, in California Law Journal, volume 86, number 3, page 524: