engage definition | Dictionary.com

en⋅gage

[en-geyj]

verb, -gaged, -gag⋅ing.

–verb (used with object)

1.	to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons): He engaged her in conversation.

2.	to secure for aid, employment, use, etc.; hire: to engage a worker; to engage a room.

3.	to attract and hold fast: The novel engaged her attention and interest.

4.	to attract or please: His good nature engages everyone.

5.	to bind, as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath; make liable: He engaged himself to repay his debt within a month.

6.	to betroth (usually used in the passive): They were engaged last week.

7.	to bring (troops) into conflict; enter into conflict with: Our army engaged the enemy.

8.	Mechanics. to cause (gears or the like) to become interlocked; interlock with.

9.	to attach or secure.

10.	Obsolete. to entangle or involve.

–verb (used without object)

11.	to occupy oneself; become involved: to engage in business or politics.

12.	to take employment: She engaged in her mother's business.

13.	to pledge one's word; assume an obligation: I was unwilling to engage on such terms.

14.	to cross weapons; enter into conflict: The armies engaged early in the morning.

15.	Mechanics. (of gears or the like) to interlock.

Origin:
1515–25; < MF engager, OF engagier. See en- ¹ , gage ¹

Related forms:

en⋅gag⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
1. absorb, engross, interest, involve.

Antonyms:
2. discharge. 8. release.

en⋅ga⋅gé

[Fr. ahn-ga-zhey]

–adjective

choosing to involve oneself in or commit oneself to something: Some of the political activists grew less engagé as the years passed.

Origin:
1950–55; < F: lit., engaged

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To engage

en·gage (ěn-gāj')

v. en·gaged, en·gag·ing, en·gag·es

v. tr.

To obtain or contract for the services of; employ: engage a carpenter.
To arrange for the use of; reserve: engage a room. See Synonyms at book.
To pledge or promise, especially to marry.
To attract and hold the attention of; engross: a hobby that engaged her for hours at a time.
To win over or attract: His smile engages everyone he meets.
To draw into; involve: engage a shy person in conversation.
To require the use of; occupy: Studying engages most of my time.
To enter or bring into conflict with: We have engaged the enemy.
To interlock or cause to interlock; mesh: engage the automobile's clutch.
To give or take as security.

v. intr.

To involve oneself or become occupied; participate: engage in conversation.
To assume an obligation; agree.
To enter into conflict or battle: The armies engaged at dawn.
To become meshed or interlocked: The gears engaged.

[Middle English engagen, to pledge something as security for repayment of debt, from Old French engagier : en-, in; see en-¹ + gage, pledge, of Germanic origin.]
en·gag'er n.

en·ga·gé (ěn'gä-zhā')

adj. Actively committed, as to a political cause.

[French, past participle of engager, to engage, from Old French engagier, to pledge; see engage.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Engage

En*gage"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Engaged; p. pr. & vb. n. Engaging.] [F. engager; pref. en- (L. in) + gage pledge, pawn. See Gage.]

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." --Shak.

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. --Addison.

4. To employ the attention and efforts of; to occupy; to engross; to draw on.

Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage. --Pope.

Taking upon himself the difficult task of engaging him in conversation. --Hawthorne.

5. To enter into contest with; to encounter; to bring to conflict.

A favorable opportunity of engaging the enemy. --Ludlow.

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

En*gage"\, 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. --Fuller.

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.

Language Translation for : engage

Spanish: contratar,

German: anstellen,

Japanese: 雇う

More Translations »

engage

1430, from M.Fr. engagier, from O.Fr. en gage "under pledge," from en "make" + gage "pledge," through Frankish from P.Gmc. *wadiare "pledge" (showing the common evolution of Gmc. -w- to Fr. -g-; cf. Guillaume from Wilhelm). Specific sense of "promise to marry" first recorded 1727.

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