ENGAGE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Engage

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/ɛngˈeɪdʒ/ Listen

verb

Engage v. t. (past & past part. engaged; pres. part. engaging)

1.

To put under pledge; to pledge; to place under obligations to do or forbear doing something, as by a pledge, oath, or promise; to bind by contract or promise. "I to thee engaged a prince's word."

2.

To gain for service; to bring in as associate or aid; to enlist; as, to engage friends to aid in a cause; to engage men for service.

3.

To gain over; to win and attach; to attract and hold; to draw. "Good nature engages everybody to him."

4.

To employ the attention and efforts of; to occupy; to engross; to draw on. "Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage." "Taking upon himself the difficult task of engaging him in conversation."

5.

To enter into contest with; to encounter; to bring to conflict. "A favorable opportunity of engaging the enemy."

6.

(Mach.) To come into gear with; as, the teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another, or one part of a clutch engages the other part.

Engage v. i.

1.

To promise or pledge one's self; to enter into an obligation; to become bound; to warrant. "How proper the remedy for the malady, I engage not."

2.

To embark in a business; to take a part; to employ or involve one's self; to devote attention and effort; to enlist; as, to engage in controversy.

3.

To enter into conflict; to join battle; as, the armies engaged in a general battle.

4.

(Mach.) To be in gear, as two cogwheels working together.

See images of 'Engage'

Etymology of 'Engage'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Engage" Quotes from Famous Books

... are a good many young gentlemen like you, Mr Crawford," observed Denis, "only they haven't the wisdom to keep their money in a bank while they are learning something about the business they wish to engage in. In most instances they are so eager to begin, that they buy land, and very soon find all their money gone, long before their crops have grown, or what they have laid out in other ways has given them ...

— Hendricks the Hunter - The Border Farm, a Tale of Zululand • W.H.G. Kingston

... and his entertainer seated themselves, and the sexton, after some fruitless attempts to engage his guest in conversation, was obliged to apply himself to his tobacco-pipe and can to ...

— The Purcell Papers - Volume II. (of III.) • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

... be appointed, and these are seldom selected because of any special knowledge of mining they may possess, but as a rule simply because they are large shareholders or prominent men whose names look well in a prospectus. These gentlemen forthwith engage a Secretary, usually on the grounds that he is the person who has tendered lowest, to provide office accommodation and keep the accounts; and not from any particular knowledge he has of the true ...

— Getting Gold • J. C. F. Johnson

... ceremony, and will go to war over the matter. Probably, however, it is rather a question of the sorcerer's assumed volition—that is, it is assumed that the friendly sorcerer does not want the chief to die, and the people rely upon him to confine himself to a divination ceremony, and not to engage in hostile sorcery; whereas a hostile sorcerer might do the latter. I may add that I was led to suspect that the burning test was regarded as being only a matter of divination, and that the causation, if it occurred, was effected by means ...

— The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea • Robert W. Williamson

... to give his whole time to the business of the Bank. He ought to be forbidden to engage in any other concern. All the present directors, including the Governor and Deputy-Governor, are engaged in their own business, and it is very possible, indeed it must perpetually have happened, that their own business as ...

— Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market • Walter Bagehot

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