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?”

Verb

(en verb)

to strive in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.

* Bible, Deuteronomy ii. 9

The Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle.

* Shakespeare

For never two such kingdoms did contend without much fall of blood.

to struggle or exert one's self to obtain or retain possession of, or to defend.

* Dryden

You sit above, and see vain men below / Contend for what you only can bestow.

to strive in debate; to engage in discussion; to dispute; to argue.

* John Locke

The question which our author would contend for.

* Dr H. More

Many things he fiercely contended about were trivial.