engage
verb (used with object)
to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons).
engage
1 American
[en-gayj]
/ ɛnˈgeɪdʒ /
verb (used with object)
engaged,
engaging
-
to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons).
He engaged her in conversation.
-
to secure for aid, employment, use, etc.; hire.
to engage a worker;
to engage a room.
- Antonyms:
- discharge
-
to attract and hold fast.
The novel engaged her attention and interest.
-
to attract or please.
His good nature engages everyone.
-
to bind, as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath; make liable.
He engaged himself to repay his debt within a month.
-
to betroth (usually used in the passive).
They were engaged last week.
-
to bring (troops) into conflict; enter into conflict with.
Our army engaged the enemy.
-
Mechanics. to cause (gears or the like) to become interlocked; interlock with.
- Antonyms:
- release
-
to attach or secure.
-
Obsolete. to entangle or involve.
verb (used without object)
engaged,
engaging
-
to occupy oneself; become involved.
to engage in business or politics.
-
to take employment.
She engaged in her mother's business.
-
to pledge one's word; assume an obligation.
I was unwilling to engage on such terms.
-
to cross weapons; enter into conflict.
The armies engaged early in the morning.
-
Mechanics. (of gears or the like) to interlock.
engagé
2
American
[ahn -ga -zhay]
/ ɑ̃ gaˈʒeɪ /
adjective
engage
1
British
/ ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ /
verb
-
to secure the services of; employ
-
to secure for use; reserve
engage a room
-
to involve (a person or his attention) intensely; engross; occupy
-
to attract (the affection) of (a person)
her innocence engaged him
-
to draw (somebody) into conversation
-
(intr) to take part; participate
he engages in many sports
-
to promise (to do something)
-
(also intr) military to begin an action with (an enemy)
-
to bring (a mechanism) into operation
he engaged the clutch
-
(also intr) to undergo or cause to undergo interlocking, as of the components of a driving mechanism, such as a gear train
-
machinery to locate (a locking device) in its operative position or to advance (a tool) into a workpiece to commence cutting
engagé
2
British
/ ɑ̃ɡaʒe /
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of engage1
First recorded in 1515–25; from Middle French engager, Old French engagier; see en- 1 ( def. ), gage 1 ( def. )
Origin of engagé2
First recorded in 1950–55; from French: literally, “engaged”
Explanation
Engage means to bind, catch, or involve. If your sink is stopped up, engage, or hire, a plumber to fix it. Otherwise the smell of rotten food in the garbage disposal will engage your attention (in a bad way). Engage comes from a French word for pledge. If you agree to marry your sweetheart, you are engaged to marry. If you engage the kid next door to water your plants, she will expect to be paid for it. Engagement is also used to talk about war or conflict. An army engages its enemy in battle, just as you might engage in debate with a traffic cop over whether the light was yellow or red.
Vocabulary lists containing engage
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Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (1863)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"We continue to engage in the firefight, and have additional resources coming," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday defended the approach, saying the Southeast Asian nation "has done everything we can" to engage neighbouring Indonesia on the issue.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Gates now views containing the potential fallout from AI “as one of the most important issues he will engage with in his lifetime,” people familiar with his thinking told Bradley Olson.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Whether these nontraditional finance apps ultimately help consumers depends largely on how people engage with them.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
It was the sort of overly aggressive maneuver only a Soulless Minion of Orthodoxy would engage in.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
Though more engagé than restful, Menand’s “The Free World” is comparably diverting, even at the basement level of the weird factoid.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2021
But as with the title novella, the ironies here are deepened by our foreknowledge of the world that actually awaits the poet: laissez-faire where he wants to be engagé, iron-fisted where he would be free.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2021
We confuse him with the truly engagé Enlightenment and Romantic writers who came long afterward, as they came to confuse his briny Bordeaux with their winey one.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 8, 2017
The 32-year-old American illustrator is a cross between a photojournalist chasing hot spots and a 19th-century écrivain engagé who champions causes with art.
From Economist ● Jan. 7, 2016
In places the engagé has become a mere deck-hand.
From On Canada's Frontier Sketches of History, Sport, and Adventure and of the Indians, Missionaries, Fur-traders, and Newer Settlers of Western Canada by Julian Ralph
In its ruling, the panel said Burwood had engaged in a "sustained, calculated course of conduct" and had manipulated the resident for personal gain.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
More than 1,500 people have been deployed to search old battlefields in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia -- neighbouring countries drawn into the war -- alongside thousands more engaged in data collection and analysis.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
“Separately, we are engaged in ongoing mediation discussions regarding the various pending civil class action lawsuits,” Melrose said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
I got engaged in August, and now I find myself constantly thinking and talking about wedding planning.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
During that same summer of the Americans’ annihilation by the Soviets, Bobby Fischer, now twelve, was engaged in his own battles on the board, playing in a tournament in Greenwich Village.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Connecting information to something exciting, personally important, or emotionally engaging could make it easier to remember, particularly during stressful situations.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
William Chapman's family described him as "bright, warm and engaging"
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
About the theory that she would only be engaging with these people if she were plastered?
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
“At this juncture,” he said, “I will respectfully refrain from engaging in speculation as to the prosecution’s reasons or motives for their decision to dismiss the felony case against Mr. Lopez.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
Every Sunday morning, our congregation would pray for the safety of our leaders, and for these courageous children and their families engaging in sit-ins and other direct forms of protest.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
