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

(en verb)

To keep safe; to defend; to guard; to prevent harm coming to.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}