engage

verb engages · engaging · engaged · ingage

1. transitive To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied. Thus ſhall mankind his guardian care engage, / The promis'd father of the future age.
2. ambitransitive To draw into conversation. the difficult task of engaging him in conversation
3. To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone). This humanity and good nature engages every body to him, so that when he is pleasant upon any of them all his family are in a good humour, and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with: […]
4. transitive To enter into conflict with (an enemy). 1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy
5. intransitive To enter into battle.
6. transitive To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.). 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.
7. intransitive To guarantee or promise (to do something).
8. transitive To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do something, especially to marry) (usually in passive). They were engaged last month! They're planning to have the wedding next year.
9. obsolete, transitive To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land). Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.
10. To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch). Whenever I engage the clutch, the car stalls out.
11. transitive To come into gear with. The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.
12. intransitive, transitive To activate a lock. He engaged the lock on the door.
13. obsolete, transitive To entangle.