engaged
- busy or occupied; involved: deeply engaged in conversation.
- pledged to be married; betrothed: an engaged couple.
- under engagement; pledged: an engaged contractor.
- entered into conflict with: desperately engaged armies.
- Mechanics.
- interlocked.
- (of wheels) in gear with each other.
- Architecture. (of a distinct member) built so as to be truly or seemingly attached in part to the structure before which it stands: an engaged column.
Origin of engaged
engage
- 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.
- 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.
- to attach or secure.
- Obsolete. to entangle or involve.
- 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.
Origin of engage
Synonyms for engage
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comAntonyms for engage
Related Words for engaged
hooked, committed, preoccupied, working, involved, engrossed, interested, absorbed, employed, occupied, affianced, intended, betrothed, steady, bound, plighted, contracted, pinned, ringed, doingExamples from the Web for engaged
Contemporary Examples of engaged
Jennie met Randolph Churchill in 1873 at a ball; three days later they were engaged.
“After we got engaged, she only made things harder,” explains Sabrine.
She was engaged a year later to a man 11 years her senior, chosen by her father.
The brash, engaged, occasionally self-centered ex-lawmaker seemed to retreat inward and practically disappear.
Hagel Takes a Bullet for Obama: Inside the Defense Secretary’s Sudden FiringShane Harris, Tim Mak
November 24, 2014
And what do I call him now that we are living together, but are not engaged or married?
Historical Examples of engaged
Plainly, too, he was a man of action and a man who engaged all her instinctive liking.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
Then after she was engaged to Shepler they talked him out of it.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
My granddaughter, you may have heard, is engaged to an Englishman.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
While engaged with her father, she would cut wood, haul logs, etc.
Harriet, The Moses of Her PeopleSarah H. Bradford
On the 23rd we were engaged making preparations for a start for Eucla.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
engaged
- pledged to be married; betrothed
- employed, occupied, or busy
- architect built against or attached to a wall or similar structurean engaged column
- (of a telephone line) already in use
engage
- to secure the services of; employ
- to secure for use; reserveengage 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; participatehe engages in many sports
- to promise (to do something)
- (also intr) military to begin an action with (an enemy)
- to bring (a mechanism) into operationhe 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
Word Origin for engage
engagé
- (of a writer or artist, esp a man) morally or politically committed to some ideology
Word Origin and History for engaged
engage
early 15c., "to pledge," from Middle French engagier, from Old French en gage "under pledge," from en "make" + gage "pledge," through Frankish from Proto-Germanic *wadiare "pledge" (see wed).
It shows the common evolution of Germanic -w- to French -g-; cf. Guillaume from Wilhelm). Meaning "attract the attention of" is from 1640s; that of "employ" is from 1640s, from notion of "binding as by a pledge." Specific sense of "promise to marry" is 1610s (implied in engaged).