invest

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French investir or Medieval Latin investire, from Latin investio (“to clothe, cover”), from in- (“in, on”) + vestio (“to clothe, dress”), from vestis (“clothing”); see vest. The sense “to spend money etc.” probably via Italian investire, of the same root.

verb

1. To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
   We'd like to thank all the contributors who have invested countless hours into this event.
2. (transitive, dated) To clothe or wrap (with garments).
   He was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers; a rag of a black handkerchief investing his neck. 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To put on (clothing).
   Cannot find one this girdle to invest! 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book 4, canto 5, verse 18
4. To envelop, wrap, cover.
   Night / Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, ll. 207-8
5. To commit money or capital in the hope of financial gain.
6. To ceremonially install someone in some office.
7. To formally give (someone) some power or authority.
   I do invest you jointly with my power. c. 1603–06, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 1, scene 1
8. To formally give (power or authority).
   For he saith, if there can be found such an inequality between man and man, as there is between man and beast, or between soul and body, it investeth a right of government: which seemeth rather an impossible case than an untrue sentence. a. 1626, Francis Bacon, An Advertisement Touching a Holy War
9. To surround, accompany, or attend.
   The scene was not without a mixture of awe such as must always invest the spectacle of the guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering, at it. 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
10. To lay siege to.
    to invest a town
11. (intransitive) To make investments.
12. (metallurgy) To prepare for lost wax casting by creating an investment mold (a mixture of a silica sand and plaster).
13. (intransitive) To cause to be involved in; to cause to form strong attachments to.
    From early on in his career, Zola's work as a critic revealed just how heavily he was invested in the literary “dream of stone.” 2004, Michael D. Garval, A Dream of Stone, University of Delaware Press, page 214
    She knew from watching him grow up that he didn't let that many people too close to him, but once he did, he was invested in that relationship. 2014, Sarah Varland, Tundra Threat: Faith in the Face of Crime, Harlequin, page 107
    We decided that it was because he trusted the core beliefs of the Conservative Party, and he was invested in their vision of change in the NorthWest of England where he comes from. 2015, James Graham, Tory Boyz, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 11
14. (Spanish politics) To inaugurate the Prime Minister of Spain after a successful parliamentary vote.
    The outcome also makes it very difficult for Feijóo to become the next PM, because he does not have the support to be invested as such, unless there are changes in the initial positions of key players such as the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV). 2023-07-24, Carlos Cué, “In Spain, the left's resistance thwarts a PP-Vox majority and leaves all possibilities open”, in El País, retrieved 2023-08-06

Etymology 2

From investigate, by shortening.

noun

1. (meteorology) An unnamed tropical weather pattern "to investigate" for development into a significant (named) system.