ENGAGE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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

... heavy a toil for her gracious madamship to carry the water-pails to Horsepool—the spring in West Smithfield which supplied Cow Lane—and that so soon as she could hear tell of a gentlewoman lacking of a service, she would engage her at ten pound by the month to wait of her worshipfulness. Agnes made no answer in words; she only took up the pails quietly and went out. As she came up to Horsepool, she spied her friend Mistress Flint, bent on a similar errand, ...

— For the Master's Sake - A Story of the Days of Queen Mary • Emily Sarah Holt

... his own father-in-law; to whom he had even committed the trust of his person by creating him lord chamberlain; that this man, enjoying his full confidence and affection, not actuated by any motive of discontent or apprehension, should engage in a conspiracy against him." But Clifford persisted in his charges and statements. Stanley was placed under arrest, and was ...

— Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton • Anonymous

... drifted there for the purpose of making money, but who have no real affection for the (temporary) country of their adoption. Their capital is, as a rule, small and easily realised, and the very last thing that they would think of doing, would be to engage in a deadly life or death struggle, on behalf of a land that they only look on as a milch cow, out of which their object is to draw as much as possible. On the contrary, they would promptly seek another cow, leaving the old one to ...

— Cetywayo and his White Neighbours - Remarks on Recent Events in Zululand, Natal, and the Transvaal • H. Rider Haggard

... ends of the sheaves, as if he were going to engage in the operation of "reed-drawing," and digging in his feet, and occasionally sticking in the stem of his sheep-crook, he clambered up the beetling face. He at once sat astride the very apex, and began with his crook ...

— Far from the Madding Crowd • Thomas Hardy

... plantation the Negroes were not allowed to engage in any frolics or attend social gatherings. They only knew Christmas by the return of the hired out slaves, who came home for a week before ...

— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Georgia Narratives, Part 3 • Works Projects Administration

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