engage
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/
ipa: /ɛnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -eɪdʒ
Forms: form: engages
form: engaging
form: engaged
form: engaged
form: ingage
Etymology: From Middle English engagen, from Old French engagier (“to pledge, engage”), from Frankish *anwadjōn (“to pledge”), from Proto-Germanic *an-, *andi- + Proto-Germanic *wadjōną (“to pledge, secure”), from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge, guarantee”), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge; guarantee, bail”), equivalent to en- + gage. Cognate with Old English anwedd (“pledge, security”), Old English weddian (“to engage, covenant, undertake”), German wetten (“to bet, wager”), Icelandic veðja (“to wager”). More at wed.
Senses: examples: text: Thus ſhall mankind his guardian care engage, / The promis'd father of the future age.
ref: 1712 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Messiah. A Sacred Eclogue, in Imitation of Virgil’s Pollio.”, in The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton, H. Lintot, J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, and S. Draper, published 1751, →OCLC, page 40, lines 55–56:
glosses: To interact socially.
To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
examples: text: the difficult task of engaging him in conversation
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Introductory”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
text: Shapps refused to engage with the unions and claimed that the industrial disputes were nothing to do with him, despite controlling the purse strings.
ref: 2022 September 21, Christian Wolmar, “Trevelyan must 'give a damn' and engage with the railway”, in RAIL, number 966, page 45:
glosses: To interact socially.
To draw into conversation.
examples: text: This humanity and good nature engages every body to him, so that when he is pleasant upon any of them all his family are in a good humour, and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with: […]
ref: 1711 July 13 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, July 2, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 106; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 74:
glosses: To interact socially.
To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).
examples: text: 1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs
a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy
text: Having failed to become the first warship to shoot down another planet, the fleet would then engage the Italian cruiser screen the next afternoon, with Sydney not scoring any hits on its opposite numbers but managing to damage an Italian destroyer.
ref: 2018 December 12, Drachinifel, 5:45 from the start, in HMAS Sydney - Legendary fights with Angry Australians, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2022:
glosses: To interact antagonistically.
To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
glosses: To interact antagonistically.
To enter into battle.
examples: text: For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.
ref: 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
glosses: To interact contractually.
To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).
glosses: To interact contractually.
To guarantee or promise (to do something).
examples: text: They were engaged last month! They're planning to have the wedding next year.
text: […] Love is a ſort of Devotion too, and not only ſhould beget Reſpect, but likevviſe ingage Patience.
ref: [1703], Tho[mas] d’Urfey, The Old Mode & the New, or, Country Miss with Her Furbeloe. A Comedy. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott, and sold by Samuel Clark, […], Francis Faucet […], and Lucas Stowkey […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:
glosses: To interact contractually.
To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do something, especially to marry) (usually in passive).
examples: text: Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To interact contractually.
To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).
examples: text: Whenever I engage the clutch, the car stalls out.
text: The Liner train wagon is a simple underframe on bogies, with coned location points that engage recesses in the container bases.
ref: 1964 April, G. Freeman Allen, “The BRB shows traders the Liner train prototypes”, in Modern Railways, page 265:
glosses: To interact mechanically.
To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
examples: The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To interact mechanically.
To come into gear with.
glosses: To entangle.
Derived terms: disengage
disengagement
engageable
engage in
engagement
engager
engagor
preengage
re-engage
unengage