engage
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
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.
Base: gage
Affixes: en-
Inflected forms:
form: engages
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: engaging
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: engaged
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: engaged
pos: verb
tags: past
form: ingage
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: To interact socially.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Thus ſhall mankind his guardian care engage, / The promis'd father of the future age.
gloss: To interact socially.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: the difficult task of engaging him in conversation
Shapps refused to engage with the unions and claimed that the industrial disputes were nothing to do with him, despite controlling the purse strings.
gloss: To interact socially.
pos: verb
examples: 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: […]
gloss: To interact antagonistically.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs
a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy
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.
gloss: To interact antagonistically.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To interact contractually.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
Rich Jews used to engage Christian music-teachers to teach their daughters German vocal and instrumental music.
gloss: To interact contractually.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To interact contractually.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They were engaged last month! They're planning to have the wedding next year.
[…] Love is a ſort of Devotion too, and not only ſhould beget Reſpect, but likevviſe ingage Patience.
gloss: To interact contractually.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.
gloss: To interact mechanically.
pos: verb
examples: Whenever I engage the clutch, the car stalls out.
The Liner train wagon is a simple underframe on bogies, with coned location points that engage recesses in the container bases.
gloss: To interact mechanically.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.
gloss: To interact mechanically.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: He engaged the lock on the door.
The lock engaged automatically when the door was shut.
gloss: To entangle.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
Antonyms: disengage
Derived words: disengage
disengagement
engageable
engage in
engagement
engager
engagor
preengage
re-engage
unengage
Translations: