engage

Etymology

From Middle English engagen, from Old French engagier (“to pledge, engage”), from Frankish *anwadjōn (“to pledge”), from Proto-Germanic *an-, *andi- + Proto-Germanic *wadjōną (“to pledge, secure”), from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge, guarantee”), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge; guarantee, bail”), equivalent to en- + gage. Cognate with Old English anwedd (“pledge, security”), Old English weddian (“to engage, covenant, undertake”), German wetten (“to bet, wager”), Icelandic veðja (“to wager”). More at wed.

verb

1. (transitive) To interact socially.
   1. To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
   2. To draw into conversation.
      Shapps refused to engage with the unions and claimed that the industrial disputes were nothing to do with him, despite controlling the purse strings. September 21 2022, Christian Wolmar, “Trevelyan must 'give a damn' and engage with the railway”, in RAIL, number 966, page 45
   3. To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).
2. To interact antagonistically.
   1. (transitive) To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
      1698-1699, Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy
      Having failed to become the first warship to shoot down another planet, the fleet would then engage the Italian cruiser screen the next afternoon, with Sydney not scoring any hits on its opposite numbers but managing to damage an Italian destroyer. 12 December 2018, Drachinifel, 5:45 from the start, in HMAS Sydney - Legendary fights with Angry Australians, archived from the original on 2022-12-09
   2. (intransitive) To enter into battle.
3. To interact contractually.
   1. (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. 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre
   2. (intransitive) To guarantee or promise (to do something).
   3. (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.
   4. (obsolete, transitive) To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).
4. To interact mechanically.
   1. To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).
      Whenever I engage the clutch, the car stalls out.
      The Liner train wagon is a simple underframe on bogies, with coned location points that engage recesses in the container bases. 1964 April, G. Freeman Allen, “The BRB shows traders the Liner train prototypes”, in Modern Railways, page 265
   2. (engineering, transitive) To come into gear with.
      The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.
5. (intransitive) To enter into (an activity), to participate (construed with in).
6. (transitive, obsolete) To entangle.