Word: invest Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French investir or Medieval Latin investire, from Latin investio (“to clothe, cover”), from in- (“in, on”) + vestio (“to clothe, dress”), from vestis (“clothing”); see vest. The sense “to spend money etc.” probably via Italian investire, of the same root. Pronunciation: /ɪnˈvɛst/, /ɪnˈvest/ 1. To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in. Example: We'd like to thank all the contributors who have invested countless hours into this event. Example: The authors predicted that when believers were deeply invested in a world view that had social support, believers would maintain their beliefs even when actual events disproved their worldview. 2. To clothe or wrap (with garments). Labels: dated, transitive Example: He was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers; a rag of a black handkerchief investing his neck. 3. To put on (clothing). Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: Cannot find one this girdle to invest! 4. To envelop, wrap, cover. Example: Night / Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes 5. To commit money or capital in the hope of financial gain. 6. To ceremonially install someone in some office. 7. To formally give (someone) some power or authority. Example: Madam, whatſoeuer you eſteeme Of this ſucceſſe, and loſſe vnualued, Both may inueſt you Empreſſe of the Eaſt: […] Example: I do invest you jointly with my power. 8. To formally give (power or authority). Example: For he saith, if there can be found such an inequality between man and man, as there is between man and beast, or between soul and body, it investeth a right of government: which seemeth rather an impossible case than an untrue sentence. 9. To surround, accompany, or attend. Example: The scene was not without a mixture of awe such as must always invest the spectacle of the guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering, at it. Example: For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are never troubled with the thought of what you shall have for dinner—for all your meals for three years and more are snugly stowed in casks, and your bill of fare is immutable. 10. To lay siege to. Example: to invest a town Example: When she related that a band of fanatics, after robbing a church of all its silver-plate, and burning the adjacent vicarage, drunk with their success, had invested the Castle, and cried aloud for ‘the man’ to be brought unto them, that he might be hewed to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal—[…]her young hearers felt a deep stirring of the heart,—a proud yet mellowed elation that never yet was felt by the reader of a written history, though its pages were as legitimate as any sanctioned by the royal licenser at Madrid. 11. To make investments. Labels: intransitive 12. To prepare for lost wax casting by creating an investment mold (a mixture of a silica sand and plaster). 13. To cause to be involved in; to cause to form strong attachments to. Labels: intransitive Example: From early on in his career, Zola's work as a critic revealed just how heavily he was invested in the literary “dream of stone.” Example: She knew from watching him grow up that he didn't let that many people too close to him, but once he did, he was invested in that relationship. 14. To inaugurate the Prime Minister of Spain after a successful parliamentary vote. Labels: Spanish Example: The outcome also makes it very difficult for Feijóo to become the next PM, because he does not have the support to be invested as such, unless there are changes in the initial positions of key players such as the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).