engross
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
law
Etymology: From Middle English engrossen, from Anglo-Norman engrosser (“to gather in large quantities, draft something in final form”); partly from the phrase en gros (“in bulk, in quantity, at wholesale”), from en- + gros; and partly from Medieval Latin ingrossō (“thicken, write something large and in bold lettering”, v.), from in- + grossus (“great, big, thick”), from Old High German grōz (“big, thick, coarse”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“large, great, thick, coarse grained, unrefined”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrewə- (“to fell, put down, fall in”). More at in-, gross. By surface analysis, en- + gross.
Inflected forms:
form: engrosses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: engrossing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: engrossed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: engrossed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: ingross
pos: verb
tags: alternative
archaic
historical
Senses:
gloss: To write (a document) in large, aesthetic, and legible lettering; to make a finalized copy of.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: This envelope had the air of an official record of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present.
laws that may be engrossed upon a finger nail
Wherefore Mr. Micawber […] set to work at the petition, invented it, engrossed it on an immense sheet of paper, spread it out on a table, and appointed a time for all the club, and all within the walls if they chose, to come up to his room and sign it.
gloss: To buy up wholesale, especially to buy the whole supply of (a commodity etc.).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: To monopolize; to concentrate (something) in the single possession of someone, especially unfairly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: After which time the Popes of Rome, engroſſing what they pleas'd of Politicall rule into their owne hands, extended their dominion over mens eyes, as they had before over their judgements, burning and prohibiting to be read, what they fanſied not; […]
The Coral Islands are principally visited by the pearl-shell fishermen, who arrive in small schooners, carrying not more than five or six men. For a long while the business was engrossed by Merenhout, the French Consul at Tahiti, but a Dutchman by birth, who, in one year, is said to have sent to France fifty thousand dollars' worth of shells.
Octavian then engrosses for himself proconsular powers for ten years in all the provinces where more than one legion was stationed, giving him effective control of the army
gloss: To completely engage the attention of; to involve.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: She seems to be completely engrossed in that book.
Having made a few vain attempts at engrossing my attention in my book, I was obliged to let myself be carried away by the impetuous torrent of the squire's eloquence.
gloss: To thicken; to condense.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: As, when a foggy miſt hath ouercaſt / The face of heuen, and the cleare ayre engroſte, / The world in darkenes dwels, […]
gloss: To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: The waues thereof ſo ſlow and ſluggiſh were, / Engroſt with mud, which did them fowle agriſe, / That euery weighty thing they did vpbeare, / Ne ought mote euer ſinck downe to the bottom there.
Not ſleeping to ingroſſe his idle body, / But praying to inrich his watchfull ſoule.
gloss: To amass.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: Percy is but my factor, good my Lord, / To engroſſe vp glorious deeds on my behalfe.
Related words: gross
Derived words: engrossing
engrossment
Translations: