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

(label) To take upon oneself; to start, to embark on (a specific task etc.).

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:To second, or oppose, or undertake / The perilous attempt.

(label) To commit oneself (to an obligation, activity etc.).

:

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:I'll undertake to land them on our coast.

(label) To overtake on the wrong side.

:

To pledge; to assert, assure; to dare say.

*, Bk.VII:

*:"I have now aspyed one knyght," he seyde, "that woll play hys play at the justys, I undirtake ."

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:And those two counties I will undertake / Your grace shall well and quietly enjoiy.

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:And he was not right fat, I undertake .

* (1665-1728)

*:I dare undertake they will not lose their labour.

To take by trickery; to trap, to seize upon.

*:

*:there came fourty knyghtes to sire Darras // So sire Tristram endured there grete payne / for sekenesse had vndertake hym / and that is the grettest payne a prysoner maye haue

(label) To assume, as a character; to take on.

:(Shakespeare)

(label) To engage with; to attack.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to.

(label) To have knowledge of; to hear.

:(Spenser)

(label) To have or take charge of.

*(Geoffrey Chaucer) (c.1343-1400)

*:Keep well those that ye undertake .

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:who undertakes you to your end