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engage definition

Overview

This page has 20 definitions of engage in English and French. Engage is a verb. Examples of how to use engage in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: engagé

English engage definition

Alternative forms

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.

Pronunciation

Verb

engage (third-person singular simple present engages, present participle engaging, simple past and past participle engaged)

  1. (transitive) To interact socially.
    1. To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
    2. To draw into conversation.
    3. To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).
  2. To interact antagonistically.
    1. (transitive) To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
      • 1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs
        a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy
    2. (intransitive) To enter into battle.
  3. To interact contractually.
    1. (transitive) To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).
      • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre‎[1]:
        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.
    2. (intransitive) To guarantee or promise (to do something).
    3. (transitive) To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do something, especially to marry) (usually in passive).
      They were engaged last month! They're planning to have the wedding next year.
    4. (obsolete, transitive) To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).
  4. To interact mechanically.
    1. To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
      Whenever I engage the clutch, the car stalls out.
      • 1964 April, G. Freeman Allen, “The BRB shows traders the Liner train prototypes”, in Modern Railways, page 265:
        The Liner train wagon is a simple underframe on bogies, with coned location points that engage recesses in the container bases.
    2. (engineering, transitive) To come into gear with.
      The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.
  5. (intransitive) To enter into (an activity), to participate (construed with in).
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:
      We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To entangle.

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

French engage definition

Pronunciation

Verb

engage

  1. inflection of engager:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

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