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engage

[en-geyj]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used with object)

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

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

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

to attract or please: His good nature engages everyone.

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

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

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

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

to attach or secure.

10.

Obsolete. to entangle or involve.

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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.

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Engage is one of our favorite verbs.

So is fletcherise. Does it mean:

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

to flee; abscond:

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Origin:
1515–25; < Middle French engager, Old French engagier. See en-¹, gage¹

Related forms

en·gag·er, noun

Synonyms
1. absorb, engross, interest, involve.

Antonyms
2. discharge. 8. release.

Example Sentences

Sometimes it is helpful for historians to be engage in such debates, but many are extremely well misinformed.

Successful candidates will be expected to engage in research as part of their duties.

The dysfunctional relationships and youthful ambitions of the other characters contain sufficient depth to engage the reader.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

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; < French: literally, engaged

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To engage

Collins

World English Dictionary

engage (ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ)

—vb
1.	to secure the services of; employ
2.	to secure for use; reserve: engage a room
3.	to involve (a person or his attention) intensely; engross; occupy
4.	to attract (the affection) of (a person): her innocence engaged him
5.	to draw (somebody) into conversation
6.	(intr) to take part; participate: he engages in many sports
7.	to promise (to do something)
8.	(also intr) military to begin an action with (an enemy)
9.	to bring (a mechanism) into operation: he engaged the clutch
10.	(also intr) to undergo or cause to undergo interlocking, as of the components of a driving mechanism, such as a gear train
11.	machinery to locate (a locking device) in its operative position or to advance (a tool) into a workpiece to commence cutting

[C15: from Old French engagier, from en-¹ + gage a pledge, see gage¹]

en'gager

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

engage

early 15c., 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. Related: Engaged.

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