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)

(legal, obsolete, transitive) To prove or to refute by proof, especially on threat of combat.

(obsolete) To engage in (battle, combat etc.).

*1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.iv:

*:Therewith they gan to hurtlen greedily, / Redoubted battaile ready to darrayne , / And clash their shields, and shake their swords on hy [...].