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Contain vs Engage - What's the difference?

contain | engage |

As verbs the difference between contain and engage

is that contain is (lb) to hold inside while engage is .

contain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (lb) To hold inside.
  • *
  • At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria,
  • (lb) To include as a part.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-21, volume=411, issue=8884, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Subtle effects , passage=Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.}}
  • (lb) To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • The king's person contains the unruly people from evil occasions.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.
  • *
  • Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.
  • To have as an element.
  • To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.
  • * Bible, vii. 9.
  • But if they can not contain , let them marry.

    Synonyms

    * (hold inside) enclose, inhold * (include as part) comprise, embody, incorporate, inhold * (limit by restraint) control, curb, repress, restrain, restrict, stifle

    Antonyms

    * (include as part) exclude, omit * (limit by restraint) release, vent

    engage

    English

    (wikipedia engage)

    Alternative forms

    * ingage (obsolete)

    Verb

    (engag)
  • To interact socially.
  • #To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
  • #*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • #*:Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage .
  • #To draw into conversation.
  • #*(Nathaniel Hawthorne) (1804-1864)
  • #*:the difficult task of engaging him in conversation
  • #To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).
  • #*(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • #*:Good nature engages everybody to him.
  • (lb) To interact antagonistically.
  • #(lb) To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
  • #*(Fitz Hugh Ludlow) (1836-1870)
  • #*:a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy
  • #(lb) To enter into battle.
  • (lb) To interact contractually.
  • #(lb) To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).
  • #*{{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=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.}}
  • #(lb) To guarantee or promise (to do something).
  • #(lb) To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do something, especially to marry) (usually in passive).
  • #:
  • # To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).
  • #* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vii:
  • Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage .
  • (lb) To interact mechanically.
  • #To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
  • #:
  • # To come into gear with.
  • The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.
  • (label) To enter into (an activity), to participate (construed with in).
  • *
  • *:“[…] 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?”
  • Antonyms

    * (to cause to mesh or interlock) disengage

    Derived terms

    * engagement * disengage * disengagement ----