engross

Etymology

From Middle English engrossen, from Anglo-Norman engrosser (“to gather in large quantities, draft something in final form”); partly from the phrase en gros (“in bulk, in quantity, at wholesale”), from en- + gros; and partly from Medieval Latin ingrossō (“thicken, write something large and in bold lettering”, v.), from in- + grossus (“great, big, thick”), from Old High German grōz (“big, thick, coarse”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“large, great, thick, coarse grained, unrefined”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrewə- (“to fell, put down, fall in”). More at in-, gross.

verb

1. (transitive, now law) To write (a document) in large, aesthetic, and legible lettering; to make a finalized copy of.
   Coordinate term: longhand
   laws that may be engrossed upon a finger nail 1846, Thomas De Quincey, “On Christianity, as an Organ of Political Movement”, in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine
2. (transitive, business, obsolete) To buy up wholesale, especially to buy the whole supply of (a commodity etc.).
3. (transitive) To monopolize; to concentrate (something) in the single possession of someone, especially unfairly.
   Octavian then engrosses for himself proconsular powers for ten years in all the provinces where more than one legion was stationed, giving him effective control of the army 2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin Books, published 2009, pages 125–126
4. (transitive) To completely engage the attention of.
   She seems to be completely engrossed in that book.
   Having made a few vain attempts at engrossing my attention in my book, I was obliged to let myself be carried away by the impetuous torrent of the squire's eloquence. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250
5. (transitive, obsolete) To thicken; to condense.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity.
7. (obsolete) To amass.