Verb

(en verb)

To amuse (someone); to engage the attention of agreeably.

to entertain friends with lively conversation

The motivational speaker not only instructed but also entertained the audience.

(transitive, and, intransitive) To have someone over at one's home for a party or visit.

They enjoy entertaining a lot.

* Bible, Heb. xiii. 2

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers

To receive and take into consideration; to have a thought in mind.

The committee would like to entertain the idea of reducing the budget figures.

to entertain a proposal

* De Quincey

I am not here going to entertain so large a theme as the philosophy of Locke.

* Hawthorne

A rumour gained ground, — and, however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people.

(obsolete) To take or keep in one's service; to maintain; to support; to harbour; to keep.

* Shakespeare

You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred.

(obsolete) To meet or encounter, as an enemy.

(Shakespeare)

(obsolete) To lead on; to bring along; to introduce.

* Jeremy Taylor

to baptize all nations, and entertain them into the services and institutions of the holy Jesus

Verb

To treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid.

*, chapter=12

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished .}}

To hold dear; to embrace with interest; to indulge; to encourage; to foster; to promote; as, to cherish religious principle.

(obsolete) To cheer, gladden.

* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vi:

Her merry fit she freshly gan to reare, / And did of ioy and iollitie deuize, / Her selfe to cherish , and her guest to cheare [...].