engage
verb/ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/ · /ɛnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/
Etymology From Middle English engagen, from Old French engagier (“to pledge, engage”), from Old French en- (“in, under”) + gage (“pledge”), from Frankish *wadi (“pledge”), 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 weddian (“to engage, covenant, undertake”), German wetten (“to bet, wager”), Icelandic veðja (“to wager”). More at wed.
13 senses
- 1To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
- 2To draw into conversation.
- 3To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win…
- 4To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
- 5To enter into battle.
- 6To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).
- 7To guarantee or promise (to do something).
- 8To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do…
- 9To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at…
- 10To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
- 11To come into gear with.
- 12To activate a lock.
- 13To entangle.
› To interact socially.
To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
- Thus ſhall mankind his guardian care engage, / The promis'd father of the future age.1712 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Messiah. A Sacred Eclogue, in Imitation of Virgil’s Pollio.”, in The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton, H. Lintot, J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, and S. Draper, published 1751, →OCLC, page 40, lines 55–56:
Ambitransitive To draw into conversation.
- the difficult task of engaging him in conversation1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Introductory”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
- Shapps refused to engage with the unions and claimed that the industrial disputes were nothing to do with him, despite controlling the purse strings.2022 September 21, Christian Wolmar, “Trevelyan must 'give a damn' and engage with the railway”, in RAIL, number 966, page 45:
To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).
- 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: […]1711 July 12 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SUNDAY, July 2, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 106; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 74:
› To interact antagonistically.
To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
- 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.2018 December 12, Drachinifel, 5:45 from the start, in HMAS Sydney - Legendary fights with Angry Australians, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2022:
To enter into battle.
› To interact contractually.
To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).
- 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.1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
- Rich Jews used to engage Christian music-teachers to teach their daughters German vocal and instrumental music.1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 385:
To guarantee or promise (to do something).
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.
- […] Love is a ſort of Devotion too, and not only ſhould beget Reſpect, but likevviſe ingage Patience.[1703], Tho[mas] d’Urfey, The Old Mode & the New, or, Country Miss with Her Furbeloe. A Comedy. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott, and sold by Samuel Clark, […], Francis Faucet […], and Lucas Stowkey […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:
Obsolete To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).
- Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
› To interact mechanically.
To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
- 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.1964 April, G. Freeman Allen, “The BRB shows traders the Liner train prototypes”, in Modern Railways, page 265:
Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences To come into gear with.
- The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.
To activate a lock.
- He engaged the lock on the door.
- The lock engaged automatically when the door was shut.
Obsolete To entangle.
- Antonyms
- disengage
- Derived terms
- disengage, disengagement, engageable, engage in, engagement, engager, engagor, preengage, re-engage, unengage